The present tense of French (Indicatif présent)
When conjugating a French verb, the root of the verb takes several endings (suffixes) in the various personal forms. However, English verbs do not usually take endings except for the -s ending in the third person singular of the Present tense (e.g. he goes, he reads, she writes, it makes). In French all the personal forms take a specific ending (e.g. je travaille – I work, tu travailles – you work, nous travaillons – we work).
The infinitive form usually ends in -er, -re or -ir in French, which is generally identical to the English to preposition: to make – faire; to sleep – dormir; to go – aller; to give – donner.
When conjugating a French verb the endings are added to the root of the verb. The root can be obtained by leaving the -er, -re or -ir ending off of the infinitive. E.g.: donn-er – je donn-e, tu donn-es, il donn-e.
The personal pronouns (je, tu, il, elle; nous, vous, ils, elles – like English I, you, he, she, it; we, you, they) are always put next to the verb.
Present Tense (Présent)
Verbs with the infinitive -er take the following endings:
singular:
-e
-es
-e
plural:
-ons
-ez
-ent
An example:
TRAVAILLER – TO WORK
je travaille – I work
tu travailles – you work (informal, singular)
il / elle travaille – he / she / it works
nous travaillons – we work
vous travaillez – you work (you all, you both, or formal)
ils / elles travaillent – they work
As can be seen the 1st and the 3rd person singular forms are the same in the case of the regular verbs (je travaille, il travaille).
More examples for the conjugation:
PARLER (to speak) |
AIMER (to love) |
MONTRER (to show) |
je parle tu parles il/elle parle |
j’aime tu aimes il/elle aime |
je montre tu montres il/elle montre |
nous parlons vous parlez ils/elles parlent |
nous aimons vous aimez ils/elles aiment |
nous montrons vous montrez ils/elles montrent |
All endings in the singular are mute (-e, -es, -e), they are not pronounced. The 3rd person plural ending (-ent) is also mute. Only -ons and -ez are pronounced.
If the verb starts with a vowel, je changes to j’ (je parle, but: j’aime).
In the 3rd person there are specific pronouns for masculine and feminine forms. Above both are shown. Below only the masculine form is shown (il, plural: ils).
More specific cases of the verbs with -er ending:
The verbs with -ger ending: in the 1st person plural form they get a letter e before the suffix. This is needed to keep the original pronunciation. G should be pronounced /g/ before o and not /ʒ/ as in the other personal forms before e:
MANGER (to eat) |
je mange | tu manges | il mange | nouns mangeons | vous mangez | ils mangent |
NAGER (to swim) |
je nage | tu nages | il nage | nous nageons | vous nagez | ils nagent |
Conjugated in the same way e.g.: manager (nous manageons), arranger, changer, déménager, diriger, obliger, partager.
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The verbs with -cer ending: in the 1st person plural form they get a cédille under the c (ç) so that the pronunciation of the c remain /s/ and not change to /k/ before o:
COMMENCER (to begin) |
je commence | tu commences | il commence | nous commençons | vous commencez | ils commencent |
ANNONCER (to announce) |
j’annonce | tu annonces | il annonce | nous annonçons | vous annoncez | ils annoncent |
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If the penultimate syllable contains an unstressed e (like verbs with –eter ending), this e is mute in the infinitive. (E.g. acheter – between the ch and t no vowel is pronounced.) If the verb is conjugated the suffix is often mute as well (in all the singular forms and in the 3rd person plural form). In this case e is pronounced and an accent grave must be used (è):
ACHETER (to buy) |
j’achète | tu achètes | il achète | nous achetons | vous achetez | ils achètent |
LEVER (to lift) |
je lève | tu lèves | il lève | nous levons | vous levez | ils lèvent |
If the penultimate syllable contains an é, it also changes to è when the suffix is mute. They are, for example, the verbs with -éter or -érer ending:
COMPLÉTER (to complete, to finish) |
je complète | tu complètes | il complète | nous complétons | vous complétez | ils complètent |
INQUIÉTER (to worry somebody) |
j’inquiète | tu inquiètes | il inquiète | nous inquiétons | vous inquiétez | ils inquiètent |
RÉPÉTER (to repeat) |
je répète | tu répètes | il répète | nous répétons | vous répétez | ils répètent |
PRÉFÉRER (to prefer) |
je préfère | tu préfères | il préfère | nous préférons | vous préférez | ils préfèrent |
CONSIDÉRER (to consider) |
je considère | tu considères | il considère | nous considérons | vous considérez | ils considèrent |
ESPÉRER (to hope) |
j’espère | tu espères | il espère | nous espérons | vous espérez | ils espèrent |
One part of the verbs with -eler endig will have a doubled l in the mentioned cases. The other part will have an accent, like the -eter verbs. The last case is quite rare:
APPELER (to call) |
j’appelle | tu appelles | il appelle | nous appelons | vous appelez | ils appellent |
RAPPELER (to remind) |
je rappelle | tu rappelles | il rappelle | nous rappelons | vous rappelez | ils rappellent |
GELER (to freeze) |
je gèle | tu gèles | il gèle | nous gelons | vous gelez | ils gèlent |
Like appeler: épeler (to spell) is: j’épelle, tu épelles, and so on.
The verb jeter doubles the t in all the singular forms and in the 3rd person plural form:
JETER (to throw) |
je jette | tu jettes | il jette | nous jetons | vous jetez | ils jettent |
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The verbs with -ayer, -oyer, -uyer endings: y changes to i:
PAYER (to pay) |
je paie | tu paies | il paie | nous payons | vous payez | ils paient |
ESSAYER (to try) |
j’essaie | tu essaies | il essaie | nous essayons | vous essayez | ils essaient |
ENVOYER (to spend) |
j’envoie | tu envoies | il envoie | nous envoyons | vous envoyez | ils envoient |
NETTOYER (to clean) |
je nettoie | tu nettoies | il nettoie | nous nettoyons | vous nettoyez | ils nettoient |
APPUYER (to lean) |
j’appuie | tu appuies | il appuie | nous appuyons | vous appuyez | ils appuient |
ENNUYER (to bore) |
j’ennuie | tu ennuies | il ennuie | nous ennuyons | vous ennuyez | ils ennuient |
The verbs with -ayer ending y is also acceptable instead of i: je paye, tu payes, il paye, ils payent; j’essaye, tu essayes, il essaye, ils essayent.
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Aller is entirely irregular:
ALLER
(to go)
je vais
tu vas
il va
nous allons
vous allez
ils vont
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Links:
Verbix: conjugation of any French verb
Lefigaro.fr: Liste des verbes les plus fréquents – A list of the most frequent French verbs. Their conjugation is shown as well.
Learn French with Vincent’s video: Conjugation of 200 French verbs in the indicative present tense
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Usage of the present tense (Présent):
It can describe both repeated actions around the present and actions that are in progress in the time of speaking. It doesn’t matter if the action takes a lot of time or happens just in a moment. It doesn’t matter either if the action began in the past, nor how long or since when it has been in progress, Präsens is used to describe all of these:
Je me lève à 7 heures chaque jour.
(I get up at 7 o’clock every day.)
Je travaille maintenant.
(I am working at the moment.)
Je travaille 5 heures chaque jour.
(I work 5 hours every day.)
Je travaille depuis deux heures.
(I have been working for two hours.)
J’habite ici depuis trois mois.
(I have lived here for three months.)
Présent can express future, too, if there is an adverb in the sentence that refers to the future (e.g. demain – tomorrow, la semaine prochaine – next week):
Je pars pour Paris la semaine prochaine.
(I will go to Paris / I am going to Paris next week.)
So, the French Présent can express the English Present simple, Present continuous, Present perfect and Present perfect continuous as well as the Future tense. However, if these tenses refer to a past event, they cannot be translated into French using Présent, e.g.: Somebody has been smoking here. Everything smells of smoke. “Has been smoking” refers to a past event (which, by the way, has an effect in the present) so it cannot be expressed in French by the Présent.
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