Introduction to French Verbs

A verb is the action word in a sentence. It can tell you what is happening, name an action, describe a feeling, or indicate a state of being. Please note that all the verbs in this paragraph are bolded.

In the English present tense, there are just two verb forms, or conjugations, depending on the subject. There's one form for the third person singular, and another for all other subjects: I sing, you sing, we sing, they sing, but he sings and she sings. The verb to be is the only exception, with three conjugations: I am, you are, he is, we are, they are.

In contrast, French verbs have up to six conjugations - a different one for each grammatical person:

• chanter - je chante, tu chantes, il chante, nous chantons, vous chantez, ils chantent
   
• être - je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont

Categories of French verbs
Based on patterns in the conjugations, French verbs are divided into categories:

A. Regular verbs
There are three different sets of regular verbs:

1. regular -ER verbs
2. regular -IR verbs
3. regular -RE verbs

Regular verbs within each set are all conjugated the same way in all of the tenses. Once you learn how to conjugate one regular verb in each category, you can conjugate the majority of French verbs.

B. Stem-changing verbs
These verbs take the regular -ER verb endings, but the stem of the conjugation may change, depending on the subject.

C. Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs end in -ER, -IR, or -RE, but don't follow the regular verb patterns. Instead, their conjugations are unique or are limited to just a few verbs, so you must memorize each of the conjugations separately. The 10 most common French verbs are all irregular.

There are two types of verbs which may fall into any of the above categories, but also have an additional particularity:

1. Pronominal verbs
   Pronominal verbs, including reflexive verbs, require reflexive pronouns.
    
2. Impersonal verbs
   Impersonal verbs have just one conjugation: for the impersonal subject "it."

French verb forms
In addition to different forms for each subject pronoun in the present tense, verbs can be conjugated into other tenses as well as voices and moods. To learn more, take a look at my lesson on French verb conjugation or the French verb timeline.


I know this seems like a lot of information, but don't get discouraged! Once you learn the patterns, you can conjugate the vast majority of French verbs. In the meantime, you can find out any conjugation with my French verb conjugator. And if you happen across a conjugation you don't recognize, plug it into the French verb deconjugator to find out what verb it's from and what it means.