Grammar · Verbs & tenses
The present tense — regular -er, -ir, -re verbs
Use this to conjugate the great majority of French verbs in the present tense: find the group a verb belongs to by its infinitive ending (-er, -ir, -re), then apply that group's set of endings to every person. Learn the endings once per group, not once per verb.
| parlerto speak | finirto finish | vendreto sell | |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | parle | finis | vends |
| tu | parles | finis | vends |
| il / elle / on | parle | finit | vend |
| nous | parlons | finissons | vendons |
| vous | parlez | finissez | vendez |
| ils / elles | parlent | finissent | vendent |
- il / elle / on — on takes the same form as il/elle, even when it means "we".
- vend — no written ending — the d is silent (vend sounds like "van").
- finissons — -iss- appears only in the plural — the signature of this -ir group.
- The 6 endings are the whole lesson: -er takes -e/-es/-e/-ons/-ez/-ent, -ir takes -is/-is/-it/-issons/-issez/-issent, -re takes -s/-s/-∅/-ons/-ez/-ent. Same set for every regular verb in the group.
- the present barely changes: I/you/we/they speak, only the 3rd person singular adds -s (he speaks)
- each group has 6 written endings, one per person — but several of them sound identical, so the ear relies on the subject pronoun, not the verb ending
nous parlez → nous parlons ✓ (each person has its own ending — don't mix nous with the vous ending)
For -er verbs, four forms sound identical. je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent are all pronounced /parl/ — the written endings -e/-es/-e/-ent only matter on the page, the ear can't tell them apart.
-ir has a second, different family. finir/choisir/grandir add -iss- in the plural, as shown here — but common verbs like partir, sortir, dormir follow another pattern entirely (they drop a consonant in the singular: je pars, not je partis). Don't assume every -ir verb behaves like finir.
Some -er verbs need a small spelling tweak. préférer → je préfère (accent shift), manger → nous mangeons (extra e), appeler → j'appelle (doubled consonant) — same endings as parler, just a spelling adjustment to keep the sound steady.
