English tenses at a glance

A tense tells us when something happens, and also how we see it: finished, in progress, linked to now. English has more tenses than French in everyday use, and some do not match French at all. This page is a long reference. Come back to it when you hesitate.

Un temps dit quand quelque chose se passe, mais aussi comment on le voit : terminé, en cours, lié à maintenant. Cette page est une référence longue : reviens-y quand tu hésites.

The big picture (Vue d’ensemble)

Tense	Form	Main use
Present simple	work / works	habits, facts, schedules
Present continuous	am / is / are working	now, temporary, arranged plans
Present perfect	have / has worked	the past, linked to now
Present perfect continuous	have / has been working	duration up to now
Past simple	worked	finished action, finished time
Past continuous	was / were working	action in progress in the past
Past perfect	had worked	before another moment in the past
Past perfect continuous	had been working	duration before a past moment
Will	will work	decisions, promises, predictions
Be going to	am / is / are going to work	plans, predictions with evidence
Future continuous	will be working	in progress at a future time
Future perfect	will have worked	finished before a future time

Present tenses (Les temps du présent)

Present simple

• Use: habits, facts, schedules. For he, she and it, add -s.
• Signal words: always, usually, often, every day, on Mondays.
• Example: “We deploy twice a week.” “The standup starts at 10.”
• En français : correspond au présent. Questions et négations avec do / does : “Does she work here?” “He doesn’t work here.”

Present continuous

• Use: something happening now, a temporary situation, a fixed plan in the near future.
• Signal words: now, at the moment, today, this week, currently.
• Example: “I’m fixing a bug right now.” “We’re meeting the client on Tuesday.”
• En français : « je suis en train de… » ou présent. Attention : les verbes d’état (know, like, want, understand) ne se mettent pas à la forme en -ing.

Present perfect

• Use: (1) life experience, (2) a recent action with a result now, (3) a period that is not finished, (4) a state that started in the past and continues (with for / since).
• Signal words: just, already, yet, ever, never, so far, recently, this week, for, since.
• Example: “I’ve finished the PR.” “We’ve deployed three times this week.” “Have you ever worked with Kubernetes?” “I’ve worked here since 2020.”
• En français : souvent un passé composé, mais pas toujours ! Avec « depuis », c’est le present perfect, pas le présent. Et on ne l’utilise jamais avec un moment fini : on dit “I saw him yesterday”, pas “I have seen him yesterday”.

Present perfect continuous

• Use: an action that started in the past and continues, with the idea of duration; or an action that just stopped and has a visible result.
• Signal words: for, since, all day, lately, recently, how long.
• Example: “I’ve been working on this bug since Monday.” “I’ve been waiting for a review for two days.”
• En français : « je travaille dessus depuis lundi ». Compare : “I’ve written the report” (c’est fait) et “I’ve been writing the report” (j’y travaille, ça dure).

Past tenses (Les temps du passé)

Past simple

• Use: a finished action at a finished time; a series of events in a story.
• Signal words: yesterday, last week, two days ago, in 2020, when.
• Example: “We released the feature last week.” “I joined the team in 2022.”
• En français : passé composé (à l’oral) ou passé simple. Questions et négations avec did : “Did you finish?” “I didn’t finish.”

Past continuous

• Use: an action in progress at a moment in the past; the background of a story; a long action interrupted by a short one.
• Signal words: while, when, at that moment, all morning.
• Example: “I was testing when the server crashed.” “At 3 pm, we were still debugging.”
• En français : imparfait, ou « j’étais en train de ».

Past perfect

• Use: an action that happened before another moment in the past. It is “the earlier past”.
• Signal words: before, after, already, by the time, when, because.
• Example: “When I joined the call, the meeting had already started.” “The build failed because someone had changed the configuration.”
• En français : plus-que-parfait. Utile aussi pour rapporter : “He said he had finished.”

Past perfect continuous

• Use: duration up to a moment in the past; the reason for a past situation.
• Example: “I had been working for six hours when my laptop died.” “She was tired because she had been debugging all night.”
• En français : « je travaillais depuis six heures quand… ».

Future forms (Le futur)

English has no single future tense. We choose a form by the meaning.

Will

• Use: a decision made at the moment, a promise, an offer, a prediction based on opinion.
• Example: “I’ll take a look at it today.” “I’ll send the notes after the meeting.” “It will probably take two days.”
• Négation : won’t. En français : futur simple.

Be going to

• Use: a plan decided before speaking; a prediction based on evidence you can see now.
• Example: “We’re going to migrate to the new API next quarter.” “Look at the logs. The job is going to fail.”
• En français : futur proche (« aller + infinitif »).

Present continuous and present simple for the future

• Present continuous: an arrangement with a time or a person. “I’m presenting at 3 tomorrow.”
• Present simple: a timetable or a fixed schedule. “The release freeze starts on Monday.”

Future continuous

• Form: will be + -ing.
• Use: an action in progress at a future moment; polite questions about plans.
• Example: “This time tomorrow, I’ll be presenting the demo.” “Will you be joining the call?”
• En français : « je serai en train de… ».

Future perfect

• Form: will have + past participle.
• Use: an action finished before a future moment.
• Signal words: by, by the time, before.
• Example: “By Friday, we’ll have finished the migration.” “By June, I’ll have been working here for five years.”
• En français : futur antérieur.

Conditionals: if sentences (Les phrases avec « if »)

Type	Form	Example
Zero (fact)	if + present, present	“If you merge to main, the pipeline runs.”
First (real, possible)	if + present, will	“If the tests pass, we’ll deploy.”
Second (imaginary now)	if + past simple, would	“If I had more time, I’d refactor this.”
Third (imaginary past)	if + past perfect, would have + past participle	“If we had tested earlier, we would have caught the bug.”

En français : « Si + imparfait » → conditionnel présent ; « si + plus-que-parfait » → conditionnel passé. En anglais, on ne met jamais « would » juste après « if ».

Related forms:

• “I wish I had more time.” (Je voudrais avoir plus de temps.)
• “I should have asked earlier.” (J’aurais dû demander plus tôt.)

Time clauses: no “will” after when (Propositions de temps)

After when, as soon as, before, after, until, once, use the present simple for the future.

• “I’ll call you when I arrive.” (not “when I will arrive”)
• “As soon as the build finishes, I’ll deploy.”

Used to and would (Habitudes passées)

• “I used to work in finance.” (a past state or habit that is no longer true)
• “Every morning we would have a coffee together.” (a repeated action in the past)

Quick guide: which tense? (Aide-mémoire)

Situation	Tense	Example
A habit or a fact	Present simple	“I review PRs every morning.”
Happening right now	Present continuous	“I’m reviewing a PR.”
A finished action, time given	Past simple	“I reviewed it yesterday.”
A recent result, time not given	Present perfect	“I’ve reviewed it.”
Since a moment, still going	Present perfect continuous	“I’ve been reviewing it since 9.”
In progress when something happened	Past continuous	“I was reviewing it when you called.”
Before another past moment	Past perfect	“I had reviewed it before the call.”
A decision now, a promise	Will	“I’ll review it now.”
A plan	Be going to	“I’m going to review it tomorrow.”
Done before a future time	Future perfect	“I’ll have reviewed it by noon.”

Traps for French speakers (Pièges classiques)

1. Passé composé is not always present perfect. « J’ai vu Sam hier » = “I saw Sam yesterday”.
2. « Depuis » needs the present perfect. « Je travaille ici depuis 2020 » = “I’ve been working here since 2020”, not “I work here since 2020”.
3. « Venir de » = have just. « Je viens de finir » = “I’ve just finished”.
4. No “will” after “when”. “When I get there, I’ll call you.”
5. « Il y a trois jours » = “three days ago”. Not “since three days”.
6. « How long…? » uses the present perfect. “How long have you been here?” (not “How long are you here?”)
7. Imparfait has two English forms. Habit: “used to / would”. Action in progress: past continuous.
8. Don’t use -ing with state verbs. “I know” and “I want”, not “I am knowing” or “I am wanting”.

À retenir

• Choisis le temps selon la situation : fini ou lié à maintenant, en cours ou terminé, avant ou après un autre moment.
• Le present perfect est le temps le plus difficile pour un francophone : relie toujours le passé au présent.
• Pour le futur : « will » = décision ou promesse, « going to » = plan ou preuve, présent continu = rendez-vous prévu.