Introduction to the indicatif (indicative mood)
The indicatif, or the indicative mood for French verbs, is the most common mood in French. It’s defining characteristic is that it’s used for actions or events that are considered real or concrete. When a verb is conjugated in the indicative mood, it is used to indicate facts or reality. It’s the mood we typically use when we’re just stating something without any particular emphasis on whether it’s certain, uncertain, desired, or not.
You already probably know it, as it’s the first verb tenses that you learn are in this mood. For example, in the sentence Je parle français (I speak French), parle is in the present tense and in the indicative mood, indicating the fact that I speak French. The indicative mood in French has several tenses, including:
- Présent (present)
- Imparfait (imperfect)
- Passé composé (compound past)
- Passé simple (simple past)
- Futur simple (simple future)
- Futur antérieur (future perfect)
- Plus-que-parfait (pluperfect)
Do you have to know which tenses are in the indicative mood to learn French fully? Not really, but when to start to progress in the language you will come across it more often and often, especially when diving into other verb moods such as the subjunctive.