French Verb Conjugations - Lessons on Conjugating French Verbs

Get your French verb conjugations in order with dozens of lessons on French verb conjugation, plus a conjugator with 1,200 French verbs.

Introduction to French Verb Conjugation

Conjugation refers to the five possible inflections of a verb. Once you've made a choice from each of these five, you have a conjugation or inflection. Some factors make it difficult to figure out the subject to conjugate for.

French Verb Conjugator

With all of the simple conjugations for more than 1,200 verbs, my French verb conjugator should be a great help for students and teachers alike. Type the verb or select it from a list, click conjugate, and see everything you need to know.

French Verb Deconjugator

The French verb deconjugator can help you determine which infinitive any given verb conjugation belongs to, and therefore what it means.

Improve your French Verb Conjugations

Conjugating French verbs in a workbook or letter is one thing, but remembering individual verb conjugations when you're speaking is another matter entirely. Here are some tips to help you get better at conjugating French verbs.

Auxiliary verbs

An auxiliary verb, or helping verb, is a conjugated verb used in front of another verb in compound tenses in order to indicate the mood and tense of the verb. In French, the auxiliary verb is either avoir or être.

Compound Tenses

French verb conjugations can be divided into two categories: simple tenses and compound tenses. Simple tenses have only one part (je vais) whereas compound tenses have two (je suis allé). Compound tenses are obviously more complicated, so this lesson will explain what you need to know about them and includes links to detailed lessons on each tense.

French Compound Tenses and Moods

Conjugations for the different French verb tenses and moods can be divided into two categories: simple and compound. Simple tenses and moods have only one part (e.g., je vais) whereas compound tenses and moods have two (je suis allé). This lesson will explain everything you need to know about the more complicated compound conjugations.

Dual-verb constructions

Placing pronouns and negatives with dual-verbs is a little different than with compound verbs.

French Impersonal Verbs

Impersonal verbs have only one conjugation: the third person singular indefinite, or il, which in this case is equivalent to "it" in English.

French Stem-Changing Verbs

French stem-changing verbs, sometimes also called boot verbs or shoe verbs, are conjugated with the same endings as regular -ER verbs but have two different radicals or stems.There are six different types of stem-changing verbs.

French Spelling Change Verbs

There are two groups of French verbs that have spelling changes in certain conjugations due to hard and soft vowels.

Pronominal/Reflexive Verbs

Some French verbs need a reflexive pronoun - learn about them here.

Semi-Auxiliary Verbs

French also has a number of semi-auxiliary verbs, which are conjugated in order to express various nuances of time, mood, or aspect. Semi-auxiliary verbs are always followed by an infinitive.

-CER Verbs - French Spelling Change Verbs

French verbs that end in cer have a spelling change in certain conjugations due to hard and soft vowels.

-ELER -ETER - French Stem-Changing Verbs

French stem-changing verbs are conjugated with the same endings as regular -ER verbs but have two different radicals or stems. Verbs that end in -eler and -eter double the consonant in the stem of certain conjugations.

-ER Verbs - Regular -ER Verbs

Regular -er verbs, that is, verbs that end in -er, are the largest category of French verbs. Thousands of regular French -er verbs are conjugated according to the same pattern, so once you've learned the rules of conjugation for regular -er verbs, you'll be able to conjugate all of them.

-ER Verbs - Irregular -ER verbs

There is only one truly irregular -ER verb, but there are three groups of -ER verbs that have some irregularities.

-E_ER -É_ER - French Stem-Changing Verbs

French stem-changing verbs are conjugated with the same endings as regular -ER verbs but have two different radicals or stems. Verbs that end in -e_er and -é_er have an accent addition or change in the stem of certain conjugations.

-GER Verbs - French Spelling Change Verbs

French verbs that end in ger have a spelling change in certain conjugations due to hard and soft vowels.

-IER Verbs - Regular but weird -ER verbs

French verbs that end in -ier are conjugated according to the same rules as regular -er verbs, but there is a letter combination in certain conjugations that makes -ier verbs seem strange.

-IR Verbs - Regular -IR Verbs

Regular -IR verbs, that is, verbs that end in -IR, are the second largest category of French verbs. Hundreds of regular French -IR verbs are conjugated according to the same pattern, so once you've learned the rules of conjugation for regular -IR verbs, you'll be able to conjugate all of them.

-IR Verbs - Irregular -IR Verbs

Irregular verbs are the bane of every French student's existence, but there is some good news. There are some patterns in the irregularities - once you learn the conjugations for one verb in a group, you shouldn't have any trouble with the other verbs in that group.

-RE Verbs - Regular -RE Verbs

Regular -RE verbs, that is, verbs that end in -RE, are a small category of French verbs which are conjugated according to the same pattern. Once you've learned the rules of conjugation for regular -RE verbs, you'll be able to conjugate all of them.

-RE Verbs - Irregular -RE Verbs

French has five irregular -RE verb patterns, plus a whole bunch of unique irregulars.

-YER Verbs - Stem-Changing Verbs

French stem-changing verbs are conjugated with the same endings as regular -ER verbs but have two different radicals or stems. Verbs that end in -yer may have a stem change in certain conjugations.