Conjugaison Anglaise
Conjugaison Anglaise
Conjugaison anglaise
Il faut d'abord distinguer les notions de temps grammatical (en anglais tense, les temps
tels qu'en français le « passé simple » ou le « plus-que-parfait ») et de temps
extra-linguistique (en anglais time, les notions de « passé », de « présent » et de « futur
».)
Il est admis que l'anglais ne possède à proprement parler que deux temps grammaticaux
(tenses) : le present et le preterit ou past tense[1] ,[2] . Toutes les autres formes sont des
modalités ou des aspects :
• l'aspect HAVE + -EN (où -EN symbolise le participe passé[3] )
• et l'aspect BE + -ING (où -ING symbolise le participe présent).
Cette page se propose de détailler dans un premier temps les formes des conjugaisons
anglaises, et dans un second temps leurs utilisations, plus complexes.
Pour éviter la confusion entre les terminologies du français et de l'anglais les noms anglais
seront conservés.
Les termes « progressif » et « continu », qui appartiennent à la grammaire traditionnelle,
sont maintenus car connus du plus grand nombre.
Formes
worshipping.
Le Present
Le Simple present
Le simple present se forme en ajoutant, pour la 3e personne du singulier, la désinence
<S> à la base verbale. Toutes les autres formes sont invariables. Pour certains verbes
existent des irrégularités orthographiques.
To play To think
I play I think
He, she, it, one plays He, she, it, one thinks
We play We think
Have et Be
Les verbes have et be ont des conjugaisons irrégulières au présent. On retrouve pourtant le
-s de la troisième personne dans l'un et l'autre.
To have To be
I have I am
We have We are
To play To think
I am playing I am thinking
He, she, it, one is playing He, she, it, one is thinking
To play To think
He, she, it, one has played He, she, it, one has thought
aspect BE -ING
À noter que l'emboîtement des deux aspects ne se fait jamais en sens inverse
Conjugaison anglaise 4
Le Simple past
Pour les verbes réguliers (ou « faibles »), le simple past a la même forme que le participe
passé (voir ci-dessus) : work → I worked. Les verbes irréguliers peuvent avoir des formes
différentes pour le preterit et le participe passé: to eat, I ate, I have eaten. Pour la liste
complète des verbes irréguliers voir: Wiktionary appendix: Irregular English verbs.
To play To think
I played I thought
He, she, it, one played He, she, it, one thought
We played We thought
Have et Be
Les verbes have et be ont des conjugaisons irrégulières au past tense.
To have To be
I had I was
He, she, it, one had He, she, it, one was
We had We were
To play To think
He, she, it, one was playing He, she, it, one was thinking
To play To think
He, she, it, one had played He, she, it, one had thought
La notion de futur
Il existe plusieurs façons d’exprimer le futur en anglais.
Will et shall
sujet + will + verbe
• We will spend the winter in Benidorm
• Will he write?
sujet + shall + verbe.
• He shall come, whether he likes it or not.
• We shall overcome.
Conjugaison anglaise 6
Be going to
be (conjugué) + going to + base verbale
• I'm going to get married.""
• I think it's going to rain.
• I was going to say ...
Be about
be (conjugué) + about to + base verbale
• He will be writing
• He will not / won't be writing
• Will he be writing?
Le Présent
En anglais, on utilise souvent le présent simple pour exprimer le futur quand il y a un
complément circonstanciel de temps dans la phrase. C'est particulièrement le cas lorsqu'on
évoque un futur planifié et dont la réalisation est quasi-certaine (horaires de transports
notamment):
• The train leaves at 4:16pm.
Conjugaison anglaise 7
Emploi
L'aspect BE +ING
En utilisant l'aspect BE + -ING, l'énonciateur réalise un effet de mise en scène.
L'événement est perçu dans son déroulement, comme sur une scène de théâtre, ou bien
est souligné et commenté par l'énonciateur pour marquer désapprobation, agacement,
etc.
• They are having breakfast. On focalise sur la scène en déroulement, le décor est posé.
Glose: "En ce moment, sous nos yeux, ils prennent leur petit déjeuner."
• She was waiting for the bus when the rain started. La première partie de la proposition
donne un cadre scénique au sein duquel un événement s'est produit. Glose: "Alors qu'elle
attendait son bus, soudain la pluie se mit à tomber."
• He is always complaining about the noise. L'événement est habituel; il ne se déroule pas
sous les yeux des interlocuteurs, mais il est mis en scène avec une force d'évocation qui
le rend immédiatement perceptible. Glose: "Il passe son temps à se plaindre du bruit,
cela en devient pénible."
Conjugaison anglaise 8
Le Present
Le Simple past
Le simple past (ou simple preterit) correspond à deux valeurs : un décalage sur le plan
temporel (le passé) ou un « décrochage modal » (le « preterit modal » qui concerne
l'hypothétique, l'irréel, l'imaginaire...)
Le passé: le past tense est employé dès lors que la relation prédicative est située dans le
passé, soit par un adverbe de temps, un complément de temps, ou, en l'absence de toute
marque temporelle, par le contexte.
• He went to Paris yesterday.
• I lived in Toronto from 1992 to 1997.
• Napoleon died at St Helena.
• I was born in Scotland.
• Where did you buy your car?
Les deux premières phrases indiquent explicitement un contexte passé. Les deux suivantes
supposent clairement un contexte passé (mort de Napoléon, naissance de l'énonciateur).
Conjugaison anglaise 9
Dans la dernière on utilise un past tense comme à chaque fois que l'on s'intéresse aux
conditions dans lesquelles s'est déroulé le procès (ici, « où »).
Cette valeur du simple past correspond en français au passé simple (langue écrite
littéraire) ou au passé composé (langue « ordinaire »). Il est fréquent que les
francophones utilisent un present perfect à la place du past tense par calque du français:
• il est arrivé hier : he has arrived yesterday Non
• il est arrivé hier : he arrived yesterday Oui
Il faut se souvenir qu'un contexte passé entraîne obligatoirement l'emploi du past tense.
Le simple past peut aussi correspondre à l'imparfait français dans les cas suivants:
• le verbe décrit un état, une caractéristique (révolus) du sujet:
• Mozart was a genius.
• Mrs Morland was a very good woman. (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey)
• He looked very tired.
• René Dumont always wore red pullovers.
• on a affaire à une description
• The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull. (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian
Gray)
• The road ran west through low, scorched hills ... (Peter Matthiessen, On the River
Styx)
• on se place dans une perspective historique
• On May 10, Churchill was appointed Prime Minister.
• une itération (répétition) est impliquée par le contexte
• Seeing her always made me feel like I was catching a rarity. (John Fowles, The
Collector)
Le preterit modal Le past tense ou preterit sert aussi à exprimer l'hypothétique, le
souhaitable, bref toute situation qui n'est pas la réalité:
• If I knew, I would answer. (but I don't know)
• I wish you were more careful in the future. (you are not, or have not been, careful)
• I'd rather he wouldn't come (but I'm afraid he will come)
• Suppose we had a million dollars... (however we don't have a million dollars)
Dans cette utilisation le preterit correspond en français à l'imparfait (« si j'étais riche... »)
ou au subjonctif (« j'aimerais que vous fassiez... »)
Conjugaison anglaise 10
Notion de futur
Will et Shall
Les auxiliaires de modalité will et shall renvoient au domaine du probable. Le futur
n'étant jamais certain, on voit comment will et shall peuvent être employés pour l'exprimer.
Will indique que la relation sujet - prédicat (ou sujet - groupe verbal) a toutes les chances
de se réaliser.
Avec shall la relation sujet - prédicat ne semble pas aller de soi à priori: l'énonciateur doit
donc l'imposer.
Références
• Jean-Claude Souesme, Grammaire anglaise en contexte, Ophrys, 1992.
• Henri Adamczewski et Jean-Pierre Gabilan, Les Clés de la grammaire anglaise, Armand
Colin, 1992.
Notes
[1] Jean-Claude Souesme 1992
[2] Henri Adamczewski et Jean-Pierre Gabilan 1992
[3] Par convention les linguistes représentent le participe passé par le symbole EN (comme dans eat - ate - eaten)
pour le distinguer du prétérit, symbolisé par ED
[4] Voir par exemple Pratique de l'anglais de A à Z (Hatier) ou Grammaire de l'anglais, Le Robert et Nathan,
Nathan 1996.
Voir aussi
Articles connexes
• Grammaire anglaise
Liens externes
• Collection audio libre: Les verbes irréguliers anglais (http:/ / shtooka. net/ collections/
eng/ verbs/ fr/ )
• Conjugueur anglais - Conjugaison des verbes anglais et morphologie (http:/ / www.
scientificpsychic. com/ verbs1fr. html)
• The Conjugator - Un site dédié à la conjugaison anglaise (http:/ / www. theconjugator.
com/ )
• ilearnenglish.fr - Un site dédié à la grammaire anglaise - Des exercices et leçons sur les
temps (http:/ / www. ilearnenglish. fr/ Parcoursliberte-grammaire. html)
Conjugaison anglaise 11
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