The French Present Participle and Gerund
The French present participle is the -ant form - parlant (speaking), finissant (finishing), prenant (taking). It looks like the English -ing form, and that resemblance is both a help and a trap. A help, because the gérondif (en mangeant) really does translate many English "-ing" phrases. A trap, because English also uses -ing to build its continuous tenses (I am eating), and French never does that. This page builds the participle, puts it to work in the gérondif, and then spends real time on the -ing trap, because it derails almost everyone.
Forming the present participle: nous stem + -ant
The rule is clean. Take the form of the present tense, drop -, and add -ant:
- nous parlons -> (speaking)
- nous finissons -> (finishing)
- nous prenons -> (taking)
- nous mangeons -> mangeant (eating)
- nous faisons -> (doing / making)
- nous buvons -> (drinking)
Because it is built on the stem, the rule survives most irregular verbs without trouble - prendre and faire both behave. There are only three verbs to learn separately:
- -> (being)
- -> (having)
- -> (knowing)
Memorise those three and the present participle holds no surprises.
The gérondif: en + present participle
The bare participle (sachant la vérité, il est parti - knowing the truth, he left) is fairly literary. The form you will actually use constantly is the gérondif: + present participle. It does three jobs.
1. Simultaneity: two things at once
The gérondif most often means "while doing" - two actions running together:
- mangeant, . (While eating, he watches TV.)
- vaisselle. (She sings while doing the washing-up.)
- s' foot. (He broke his leg while playing football.)
2. Manner and means: how or by what method
The gérondif also answers how? - by doing what, by what means:
- , . (By working hard, you will succeed.)
- C' forgeant 'on forgeron. (It is by forging that one becomes a blacksmith - the French "practice makes perfect".)
- . (He earns his living by selling cars.)
3. Condition: if you do this
With a future main verb especially, the gérondif slides into a conditional sense - "if you do X":
- partant , embouteillages. (By leaving early / if you leave early, you will avoid the traffic.)
- révisant , progresserez . (By revising a little each day, you will make fast progress.)
The same-subject rule
This is the one rule that separates a correct gérondif from a wrong one, and English ignores it completely. The action in the + -ant phrase must belong to the same subject as the main verb. The person mangeant must be the same person who regarde.
- pièce, j' . (As I came into the room, I saw Marie.) - I enter and I see: same subject, gérondif is fine.
But you cannot use the gérondif if the two actions belong to different people. English says "I saw Marie coming into the room" with Marie doing the coming - French cannot use en entrant there, because that would mean I came in. You would recast it, often with a relative clause: J' pièce (I saw Marie who was coming into the room). If the doer of the -ing action is not the subject of the main verb, the gérondif is wrong.
tout en + gérondif: contrast and concession
Put in front of the gérondif and you add a flavour of contrast or concession - "(all) while" or "even though", two things that sit slightly oddly together:
- souriant, . (While smiling, she refused. / Even as she smiled, she refused.)
- a . (He passed even though he hardly worked.)
- , d'. (While understanding his reasons, I do not agree.)
stresses that the two simultaneous things pull against each other - the smiling and the refusing, the not working and the passing.
Present participle as adjective versus verb: the agreement split
The -ant form has a split personality, and agreement is the giveaway.
Used as a genuine verb (in a gérondif, or a bare participle describing an action), it is invariable - it never agrees:
- , . (Running, the children fell.) - , no agreement, it is a verbal action.
- , , parties. (The women, knowing the truth, left.) - , invariable.
But many -ant words have hardened into ordinary adjectives, and as adjectives they agree like any other:
- -> -> films (an interesting book / story / films).
- -> (a charming child / girl).
- (different colours).
The test: if it describes how something is (a quality), it is an adjective and agrees - une histoire intéressante. If it describes an action being done, it is the verbal participle and stays invariable - une femme intéressant le public (a woman interesting the audience). Spelling can even diverge: the adjective fatigant (tiring) versus the participle fatiguant (tiring out, the act of). For most learners the rule is enough: adjective agrees, verb does not.
The big trap: French has no continuous tense
English uses -ing for far more than French uses -ant. The single most important difference: English builds its continuous tenses with -ing (I am eating, she was reading, they will be working), and French does not do this at all. French uses a plain present or imperfect:
- I am eating. -> . (not "je suis mangeant")
- She was reading. -> . (not "elle était lisant")
- They are working. -> .
je mange covers both "I eat" and "I am eating"; je mangeais covers "I was eating". mangeant does not exist and is one of the clearest signs of an English speaker. If you really must stress that something is in progress, French uses train + infinitive:
- train . (I am in the middle of eating.)
- train . (He was busy reading.)
The same goes for English -ing after prepositions and as a subject. Before leaving is (infinitive, not participle); after eating is (past infinitive). Swimming is good for you is , c' pour (infinitive, not participle). The French present participle is far narrower than the English -ing: in practice it lives almost entirely inside the gérondif.
Worked examples
- , . (Listening to music, I work better.) - simultaneity; same subject.
- . (You will learn French by speaking it every day.) - means.
- réservant à l', paierez . (By booking in advance, you will pay less.) - condition.
- , a continué à . (While crying, she carried on talking.) - tout en, concession.
- C' fatigante. (It is a tiring meeting.) - adjective, agrees: fatigante.
- , . (Being ill, he stayed at home.) - irregular participle , invariable.
- train . (I am cooking right now.) - progressive sense, so être en train de, never a participle.
Common mistakes English speakers make
The headline error is building a continuous tense with the participle: "je suis mangeant" for "I am eating" is wrong - French uses the plain present , and for the progressive sense train . The second is breaking the same-subject rule: en entrant, j'ai vu Marie means I entered, so you cannot use it to mean you saw Marie entering - that needs j' . The third is translating every English -ing with -ant: after a preposition French wants the infinitive (avant de partir, après avoir mangé, sans regarder), and as a sentence subject it also wants the infinitive (nager, c'est bon). The fourth is agreement confusion - the adjective intéressante agrees, but the verbal participle in a gérondif (en courant) never does. Finally, watch the three irregulars: it is , , , not "êtrant" or "avant".
See also
- The present indicative conjugation page covers the nous form you build every present participle from, plus être, avoir and savoir.
- The passé composé page covers après avoir / être + past participle, the structure French uses where English would say "after doing".
- The intermediate French grammar page sets the gérondif in the wider B1-B2 picture.
- The French grammar cheatsheet covers the whole A1-B2 grammar map at a glance.