which Tenses are used for spoken French?

oleole   Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:57 am GMT
hi! I started to learn French about half year ago but i have great problem with understanding what Tenses are used for spoken French and other kinds of Tenses that exist just in book and written version. for ex there are 10 Tenses like: Plus-que parfait, passé surcomposé, le passé composé, l'imparfait, le passé immédiat, présent, le futur immédiat, le futur antérieur, le futur simple and le passé simple. please explain me which Tenses of all these 10 abovementioned are used for spoken and everyday French?
Mika   Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:51 pm GMT
Hi oleole!

Among those you mentioned, the ones which are used for spoken and everyday French are:
présent
le passé composé
l'imparfait

What do you mean with 'passé immediat' and 'futur immédiat'?
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:17 pm GMT
"What do you mean with 'passé immediat' and 'futur immédiat'?"

I think Oleole meany such constructions like "je viens de (faire)" (="I just (did)") and "je vais (faire)" (="I am going to (do)"), which are indeed extremely frequent in colloquial speech.

"Among those you mentioned, the ones which are used for spoken and everyday French are:
présent
le passé composé
l'imparfait "

and you should add "plus-que-parfait", which is also quite normal in everyday speech.

The future tense is not essential. Generally omitted, substituted with present ("Si tu passes dans 50 ans tu es bienvenu !") or 'futur immédiat' ("On va avoir de gros problèmes d'environnement d'ici un siècle ou deux...").
Mika   Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:02 am GMT
Merci, Guest!
oleole   Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:03 pm GMT
thank you very much for your detailed answer :)) i'm really glad to hear answer for my question. it lasts already so much time since i have been trying to find out about these Tenses in French and just now i know that thank to you Guest and Mika. as i understand you already know French good. did you study all these Tenses or you learned just spoken French for everyday talk?
Oleole   Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:30 pm GMT
well, so if i understand right, you don't generally use for spoken French such forms as ' j'ai eu aimé/tu a eu fini' (passé surcomposé). and such forms as ' j'aurai aimé/tu auras fini (le futur antérieur) and ' j'aimerai/tu finiras (le futur simple) substituted with present like... on va aimer/finir etc?