French Conjugation: The Present Tense

Do you discover French conjugation scary? If sure, you aren’t alone. Many learners assume the identical, particularly at first.

When I used to be a secondary faculty pupil studying French, it appeared inconceivable to learn to conjugate probably the most primary verbs, not to mention grasp French conjugation.

Even so, I made a decision to check languages at college. I lived in France and Belgium, and ended up instructing French to individuals from everywhere in the world.

Today, I converse French each day.

The conjugations that scared me a lot come naturally to me now. If I might return in time and apply the information I had right now, I’d have turn out to be fluent sooner.

So as an alternative, I’ll share it with you!

To perceive French conjugation, you must know the several types of French verbs. We can divide French verbs into three teams:

• First group verbs: common verbs ending with -er, like parler
• Second group verbs: common verbs ending with -ir, like choisir
• Third group verbs: irregular verbs that don’t observe a selected rule, like faire

What is the distinction between common and irregular verbs? The conjugation of irregular verbs doesn’t observe a sample, like with common verbs.

Have a take a look at this desk which compares the common verb parler (“to speak”) to the irregular verb être (“to be”)

Can you see how parler follows a sample and être doesn’t? That’s the distinction between common and irregular verbs in French.

I’ve a bit of excellent information and a bit of dangerous information.

Good information: 80% of French verbs belong to the primary group, common verbs. If you understand how to conjugate considered one of these verbs, it means that you would be able to conjugate all of them.

For instance, the verb parler, (“to speak”) belongs to the primary group. All the opposite first group verbs observe the identical logic as parler in terms of conjugation within the current tense. This means you possibly can apply your information to all the opposite first group verbs and conjugate décider, arriver, manger, and 1000’s extra.

Bad information, now? Some of the commonest verbs in French are third group verbs, which implies they don’t seem to be common.

Think of the verbs you utilize every single day in English—”to have”, “to go”, “to come”, “to do”… You would use them regularly in French as nicely—avoir, aller, venir, faire… They all belong to the third group.

Learning the commonest French verbs wouldn’t solely pace up your studying, however it would additionally show you how to get extra fluent and extra assured when you’re utilizing the language.

Let’s conjugate a few of the commonest verbs collectively. To make it simpler, we’ll begin with the primary group verbs after which transfer on to the irregular third group verbs.

Keep in thoughts that this listing will not be so as of frequency.

Example sentence: Je parle français. (“I speak French.”)

Note: Parler is a primary group verb. Here is how we conjugate these verbs in French current tense: we take away the -er and add the right ending. As you possibly can see within the chart, the ending for every particular person is totally different.

Example sentence: Tu penses à quoi? (“What are you thinking of?”)

Note: Penser can also be a primary group verb so we conjugate it the identical approach as parler, utilizing the identical endings.

Example sentence: Il aime sa famille. (“He loves his family.”)

Note: When the verb begins with a vowel, we do a contraction for je and for je solely. For instance, as an alternative of claiming je aime, we should always say j’aime.

Example sentence: Vous regardez la télé tous les jours. (“You watch TV every day.”)

Example sentence: Ma mère m’appelle. (“My mother is calling me.”)

Note: You already know this verb. How? Think of the primary sentence you’ve realized in French. It’s in all probability je m’appelle. Although it’s used as “my name is,” its literal that means is “I call myself.” Makes sense proper?

Example: Je donne le livre à ma sœur. (“I givethe book to my sister.”)

Example: J’aide mon ami. (“I help my friend.”)

Note: Here’s a trick to recollect the verb aider: consider “first aid” in English. It comes from Old French which originates from Latin.

Example: Je mange trop de sucre. (“I eat too much sugar.”)

Note: While we’re conjugating, we should have in mind the pronunciation as nicely. French will not be a phonetic language, which signifies that it’s not pronounced the identical approach it’s written.

Now try nous mangeons. It seems like there’s an additional -e there, proper? It’s simply there in order that the G in mangeons appears like the remainder of the verb.

Example: Elle habite à Paris. (“She lives in Paris.”)

Note: The letter “h” often counts as a vowel in French and it’s all the time silent. This is why we are saying j’habite and never je habite.

Example: Elles finissent dans 10 minutes. (“They finish in 10 minutes.”)

Note: Finir is a second group verb. To conjugate these verbs, we first take away the -ir infinitive and add the fitting ending. We can apply this to the entire second group verbs.

Example: Je choisis la deuxième choice. (“I choose the second option.”)

Note: Choisir belongs to the second group as nicely so it has the identical endings as finir.

12. Être (“To Be”)

Example sentence: Je suis malade. (“I am sick”)

Note: Although être is an irregular verb, it’s prone to be one of many first verbs you be taught in French. I’d suggest studying it very nicely as—spoiler alert—être might be crucial as you be taught different tenses in French.

Example sentence: J’ai 25 ans. (“I am 25 years old.”)

Tip: Don’t neglect that we use the verb avoir, not être to speak about our age in French. You’re actually saying “I have 25 years” as an alternative of “I am 25 years old.”

Example sentence: Mon frère va à l’école. (“My brother goes to school.”)

Tip: Aller is a tough verb. Although it ends with -er, it’s an irregular verb and it belongs to the third group. You can see that its conjugation could be very totally different from first group verbs.

Example sentence: Tu viens du sud. (“You come from the south.”)

Note: Just just like the verb aller, venir can also be a third-group verb—don’t let the -ir ending idiot you.

Note: Have you observed one thing in frequent between faire and venir? In each these verbs, je and tu are conjugated the identical approach. Il/elle finish with -t, nous ends with -ons, and vous ends with -ez.

What about ils/elles in faire? That’s very totally different from venir. Well, try aller this time!

Example sentence: Je fais du sport tous les jours. (“I do sports every day.”)

Example sentence: Il veut beaucoup de cadeaux pour son anniversaire. (“He wants a lot of presents for his birthday.”)

Example sentence: Je peux parler français. (“I can speak French.”)

Example sentence: Je ne sais pas. (“I don’t know.”)

Note: Check out the similarities between the conjugations of vouloir, pouvoir, and savoir.

Example sentence: Je vois une voiture devant le supermarché. (“I see a car in front of the supermarket.”)

Example sentence: Vous prenez le bus à 10h. (“You take the bus at 10 o’clock.”)

Note: In French, there are various essential verbs that derive from prendre. Comprendre, for instance, means “to understand.” You would conjugate it the identical approach as prendre.

The commonest option to make a unfavorable sentence in French is to make use of the phrases ne and pas. The verb would go in the midst of these two phrases. If you examine instance 19, you will notice the negation in motion: je ne sais pas (“I don’t know”).

Here are another methods to type unfavorable sentences in French:

It is true that spelling these verbs appropriately is essential, particularly if you happen to’re a pupil. But don’t neglect that pronunciation is equally essential. This is the half the place it will get simpler although.

Let’s clarify by utilizing the verb parler once more. As we simply coated, the current tense conjugations for the verb parler are je parle, tu parles, il/elle parle, nous parlons, vouz parlez, ils/elles parlent.

Among these six conjugations, parle, parles and parlent are all pronounced the identical. That’s 4 out of six which implies that you’ve got greater than a 50% likelihood of getting the pronunciation proper! This is just one of many the reason why talking French is less complicated than you assume. You solely have to learn to say the nous type and the vous type, which isn’t that onerous—you simply don’t pronounce the final letter.

In French, there may be additionally an alternate phrase for nous. It’s known as on and it means “we,” similar to nous. But on is conjugated in the identical approach as il/elle, not nous. Native audio system use on as an alternative of nous in casual conditions corresponding to when they’re talking with their associates. So if you happen to say on parle as an alternative of claiming nous parlons, you’d sound extra fluent. Plus, it’s simpler to conjugate.

This will enhance your confidence as you’ll begin to perceive French an increasing number of. When you be taught the frequent verbs, you’ll have the ability to conjugate the extra unusual ones extra simply as nicely.

Even in irregular verbs, there are some patterns. For instance, vous conjugations finish with -ez in lots of verbs.

Try figuring out these patterns so that you simply’ll spend much less time discovering the fitting conjugation for every verb.

Don’t be afraid to talk despite the fact that you’re not 100% certain if you’re conjugating the verbs appropriately. If you don’t know a phrase, there may be all the time a option to work round it to make your self understood.

By talking with fellow French audio system, you’ll get a variety of talking apply, together with conjugation.

Besides bettering your vocabulary, you’ll additionally hear correctly-conjugated French verbs on a regular basis. Plus, you’ll take heed to good songs and watch cool movies. Win-win!

You can use totally different methods to practise your verbs and see what works greatest for you. Writing verbs on flashcards, studying them out loud, or utilizing a language studying app can all be choices.

Also, take into account that everybody has a distinct studying fashion. For instance, I be taught by writing and talking.

I’d say when you’re assured conjugating aller, venir, avoir, and être and a handful of the frequent verbs, you possibly can transfer on to futur proche (close to future) or passé composé (current good/easy previous).

Next articles? Possibly!

Bonne likelihood! (“Good luck!”)

Yaren Fadiloglulari

Freelance Content Writer & Journalist

Originally from Cyprus, Yaren is a contract author for a lot of digital publications, journey and training manufacturers, and start-ups.

Speaks: English, Turkish, French, and Spanish

View all posts by Yaren Fadiloglulari