- As in many other languages French verbs can be regular or irregular.
- There are three types of regular infinitive endings –ER,-IR,-RE
- The majority of the regular verbs belong to the first group, often named the –ER verbs.
- The second group of verbs tends to describe a transformation.
- The third group of verbs tends to have an infinitive ending in –RE.
Regular and irregular verbs
When it comes to French verbs, one of the notions to take into consideration
is regularity. We need first to learn whether or not a verb is regular or
irregular.
Let’s start with the regular ones.
What is a regular verb?
It is called regular because the radical form or the stem (the infinitive
minus its ending: Chant-ER) doesn’t have to go through too many transformations
when conjugated in the different moods and tenses.
Formation
Examples of regular and irregular verbs in English and French:
Note that we are using the present tense indicative to conjugate the verbs.
Regular Verb Chanter - to sing Persons Je chante I'm singing/I sing Tu chantes you are singing Il chante he sings Nous chantons we are singing Vous chantez you sing Ils chantent They are singing
Irregular verb Être - to be Je suis I am Tu es You are Il est he is Nous sommes We are Vous êtes you are Ils sont they are
As you can see, English and French have regular and irregular verbs.
As shown above, the radical form or stem of “chanter” is chant-. In the French present tense the form of the stem has not even changed once when the irregular verb “être” (to be), in the present tense has six different forms and has changed with each different person.
The personal
pronouns
It is also the tradition to show how the verb is used with the personal pronouns
which cover all the forms in which the verb is conjugated in one tense.
Learn them; they will be very handy as you learn along. You may want to use each person with the appropriate verb form in the context of a sentence. This facilitates enormously the process of memorisation.
Singular English French First person I Je Second person you Tu Third person He, she,it Il/elle Plural First person We Nous Second person you Vous Third person They Ils/elles
Regular verbs and their infinitive ending
Traditionally the French regular verbs are divided into three main groups according to the ending of their infinitive forms.
The three groups of regular verbs are those ending in:
- -ER, For Example: Chanter – to sing
- -IR, For Example: Finir – to finish
- -RE For Example: Rendre – to give back
Remember that we only have one present tense in French. If you wish to emphasize the fact that an action is taking place (English present continuous) use the expression: “être en train de”. Je suis en train de parler – “I’m in the process of speaking” or I’m speaking.
The following table shows the conjugation of the present tense indicative mood for each of the 3 groups of verbs.
–ER ending –IR ending –RE ending Je chant - E Je fin - IS rend - S Tu chant – ES Tu fin – IS rend – S Il chant – E Il fin – IT rend Nous chant – ONS Nous fin – ISS-ONS rend – ONS Vous chant – EZ Vous fin – ISS-EZ rend – EZ Ils chant – ENT Ils fin – ISS-ENT rend – ENT
Let's take a look at the first group of verbs: ER Verbs - Group One