Category Archives: Verbs

Tutorial of everything in connection with the verb.

Conjugation – Indicatif Présent

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-erje 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.

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

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

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.

Aller is entirely irregular:

ALLER
(to go)

je vais
tu vas
il va

nous allons
vous allez
ils vont

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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Conjugation – Indicatif – Compound Past (Passé composé)

Passé composé (Compound past) in French

Avoir or être is conjugated in the present tense, and the past participle (participe passé) of the main verb comes after:

  avoir / être            +          participe passé
    conjugated in the present tense

Avoir is used with the verbs that can have a direct object (e.g. acheter (quelque chose) – buy (something); voir (quelque chose) – see (something)). Verbs that cannot have a direct object are accompanied either by avoir or by être, it has to be learnt for each verb. At any rate, verbs without a direct object that express movement (e.g. aller – go, venir – come) or change of state are used with être.

 acheter (to buy)              dormir (to sleep)

j’ai acheté                  j’ai dormi
tu as acheté                 tu as dormi
il a acheté                  il a dormi
nous avons acheté            nous avons dormi
vous avez acheté             vous avez dormi
ils ont acheté               ils ont dormi

Using être the past participle agrees with the subject in number and person – though it cannot usually be heard, it usually  applies only the written language:

 aller (to go)                 venir (to come)

je suis allé(e)              je suis venu(e)
tu es allé(e)                tu es venu(e)
il est allé                  il est venu
elle est allée               elle est venue
nous sommes allé(e)s         nous sommes venu(e)s

vous êtes allé(e)s           vous êtes venu(e)s
ils sont allés               ils sont venus
elles sont allées            elles sont venues

The reflexive verbs are always conjugated with être:

   se laver (to wash [oneself])

je me suis lavé(e)
tu t’es lavé(e)
il s’est lavé
elle s’est lavée

nous nous sommes lavé(e)s
vous vous êtes lavé(e)s
ils se sont lavés
elles se sont lavées

If there is a direct object in the sentence and it precedes the participe passé, then the participe passé has to agree with the direct object:

Marie est ici. Je l’ai vue.
Tu as beaucoup de livres. Je les ai vus.
Marie et Nicole sont ici. Je les ai vues.

BUT: J’ai vu les livres. J’ai vu Marie et Nicole.

Note that passé composé can express not only the same meaning as the English present perfect (though the formation is very similar) but also the meaning of the simple past and several English tenses. Thus, j’ai appris can mean not only that “I have learnt” but also “I learnt”, “I had been learning” and so on.

Conjugation: Imparfait – The French Past Continuous

Imparfait
The French past continuous tense

Introduction to the Imparfait:

Firstly, the imparfait expresses continuous actions in the past.

J’écrivais une lettre hier à six heuresI was writing a letter yesterday at 6 o’clock.

Secondly, it expresses past habits, events that happened several times:

En été, j’écrivais des lettres chaque jour – In the summer I wrote letters every day.

Thirdly, it expresses  background actions and circumstances:

Nous sommes sortis, il faisait beau – We went outdoors and the weather was nice.

Here, other actions and events happened közben, or we can imagine other actions or events: „we went outdoors”, and imparfait is used to describe the background: the weather was nice at that moment).

About the usage of the imparfait you can read below more detailed.

The word imparfait (imperfect) is the opposite of parfait (perfect,  completed) (the im- forms an antonym word) and its meaning refers to the incompleteness of the action.

Disneyland Paris imparfait

Disneyland, Paris

Formation of the Imparfait:

This verb-form consists of one word. Its root is the root of the first person plural form of the indicatve. E.g. we leave the -ons ending from the present tense of nous faisons, nous parlons, and we get fais-, parl-, as the root. The endings follow this. The endings do not depend on the fact which conjugation class the verb belongs to. The endings are the same for all the verbs:

-ais
-ais
-ait

-ions
-iez
-aient

In the forms highlighted in blue, the endings sound the same (stressed open e sound).

Some examples:

PARLER
(to speak)
ALLER
(to go)
VENIR
(to come)
je parlais
tu parlais
il parlait
j’allais
tu allais
il allait
je venais
tu venais
il venait
nous parlions
vous parliez
ils parlaient
nous allions
vous alliez
ils allaient
nous venions
vous veniez
ils venaient

As for the regular verbs the root can be considered as the root of the infinitive form. However, as for the verbs that are irregular in the present tense, they conserve the irregularities of the first person plural form: present tense: nous faisons → imparfait: je faisais; nous prenons → je prenais; nous peignons → je peignais:

FAIRE
present: nous faisons
(to do)
PRENDRE
present: nous prenons
(to take)
je faisais
tu faisais
il faisait
je prenais
tu prenais
il prenait
nous faisions
vous faisiez
ils faisaient
nous prenions
vous preniez
ils prenaient

asd

PEINDRE
present: nous peignons
(to paint)
FINIR
present: nous finissons
(to finish)
je peignais
tu peignais
il peignait
je finissais
tu finissais
il finissait
nous peignions
vous peigniez
ils peignaient
nous finissions
vous finissiez
ils finissaient

In the same way:

connaitre: nous connaissons je connaissais
lire: nous lisons je lisais
conduire: nous conduisons je conduisais
dire: nous disons je disais
écrire: nous écrivons j’écrivais
boire: nous buvons je buvais
croire: nous croyons je croyais.

The pronunciation of c and g depends on what letter comes after them (e, i or something else). The verbs whose infinitive ends in -cer, -ger, -cir, -gir are affected by this rule. For this reason, before the -ais, -ait, -aient endigs c and g letters should somehow change to get the original pronunciation.
So, the pronunciation of g and c in ce, ge, ci, gi and ca, ga differs. Therefore ça is applied instead of ca, and gea is applied instead of ga:

commencaiscommençais
mangais → mangeais.

MANGER
(to eat)
NAGER
(to swim)
je mangeais
tu mangeais
il mangeait
je nageais
tu nageais
il nageait
nous mangions
vous mangiez
ils mangeaient
nous nagions
vous nagiez
ils nageaient

COMMENCER
(to begin)
ANNONCER
(to announce)
je commençais
tu commençais
il commençait
j’annonçais
tu annonçais
il annonçait
nous commencions
vous commenciez
ils commençaient
nous annoncions
vous annonciez
il annonçaient

If the root ends in i, it also gets -ions, and -iez, so two i letters will be there. Étudier (to study): nous étudiions, vous étudiiez. The y also remains unchanged before -ions, -iez endings: envoyer (to send): nous envoyions, vous envoyiez.

Avoir is not irregular:

j’avais
tu avais
il avait

nous avions
vous aviez
ils avaient
.

The only irregular verb in the imparfait is être. We cannot get its stem from nous sommes. The endings are regular here as well:

ETRE*

J’étais
tu étais
il était

nous étions
vous étiez
ils étaient

* As a block capital the ê has no accent (l’accent circonflexe): être but: ETRE, Etre.

The impersonal verbs have nothing special either:

falloir – il fallait (it was necessary to do something)
pleuvoir – il pleuvait (it was raining)
neiger – il neigeait (it was snowing)

Let’s practice!

What are the imparfait forms of the following verbs in the given person?

1 parler → je ____
2 arriver → il _____
3 donner → il _____
4 parler → nous _____
5 donner → tu _____
6 monter → vous _____
7 montrer → ils _____
8 jouer → ils _____
9 nager → nous _____
10 nager → elle _____
11 manger → je _____
12 manger → vous _____
13 aller → nous _____
14 venir → tu _____
15 partir → elles _____
16 voir → je _____
17 faire → il _____
18 dire → elle _____
19 acheter → nous _____
20 savoir → il _____
21 vouloir → je _____
22 voir → vous _____
23 lire → vous _____
24 prendre → tu _____

Put the verbs into imparfait! Mettez les verbes à l’imparfait!

Je suis à la maison.
Il commence à dormir à neuf heures.
Je lis beaucoup de livres.
Nous prenons l’autobus.
Je nage chaque jour.
Elle dit la même chose
Qu’est-ce que tu fais?
J’écris une lettre.
Vous mangez pizza le dimanche.
Nous parlons français rarement.

A Key for the exercise will be available soon – Do not check it before doing the exercise!

Source:

dr. Pataki Pál: Francia nyelvtan a középiskolák számára, Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest.

Vida Enikő: Francia nyelvtan 222 pontban, Maxim Kiadó, Szeged.

Links:

Thoughtco.com – Imperfect, French past tense

Lingolia.com – L’imparfait

Kwiziq – Expressing habits or repeated actions in L’imparfait

Bonjour de France – L’imparfait de l’indicatif – with exercises

Indicative future – Le futur simple de l’indicatif

Indicative Future in French

To express future time there are several constructions both in English and in French. We are having a party tomorrow, we are going to have a party tomorrow and we will have a party tomorrow all express future time. Indicative future is one of the most used way to express future time in French.

Indicative Future tense (le futur simple) in French is formed from the infinitive (base) form of the verb. For example:

arriver

This form gets the following endings:

-ai
-as
-a

-ons
-ez
-ont

arriver + ai, as, as, ons, ez, ont

Let’s see some examples:

ARRIVER (to arrive)

j’arriverai (I will arrive)
tu arriveras (you will arrive)
il / elle arrivera (he / she will arrive)

nous arriverons (we will arrive)
vous arriverez (all of you will arrive)
ils / elles arriveront (they will arrive)

J’arriverai is the contracted form of je + arriverai. As arriverai starts with a vowel (a-), the e before it has to be omitted and replaced with an apostrophe. The situation is the same in the other tenses, e.g. present tense: j’arrive (I arrive).
If you have a verb of -er type, the e will not be pronounced before the r in the future tense: j’arriverai.

PARTIR (to leave, to depart)

je partirai (I will depart)
tu partiras
il / elle partira

nous partirons
vous partirez
ils / elles partiront

Verbs with the infinitive endig -re omit the final e:

PRENDRE (to take, to get, to have – it can have several English equivalents)

je prendrai (I will take / have something)
tu prendras
il / elle prendra

nous prendrons
vous prendrez
ils / elles prendront

The English future tense is compound, it consists of two parts: will + infinitive. In contrary, the French future tense is simple. It consists of a single verb form with the future endings.

To recognise the French future tense, the r can help before the ending. All the verbs in future tense have an r before the ending. So we can make difference between present tense and future tense:

present tense: nous arrivons, vous arrivez; nous partons
future tense: nous arriverons, vour arriverez; nous partirons

Some of -er infinitive verbs need more attention!

Some -er verbs have an e in the penultimate syllable, e.g. acheter, jeter. In this case something happens in the future tense! Normally this e would not be pronounced. However the e in -er is not pronounced in the future tense either. It would cause problems in the pronunciation to leave out both letters e. So either this e gets a grave accent or the next consonant is doubled – it depends on the verb and you have to learn which of the two is applied for a certain verb. E.g. the e of acheter gets a grave accent but the t of jeter is doubled:

ACHETER (to buy)

e è

j’achèterai (I will buy)
tu achèteras
il / elle achètera

nous achèterons
vous achèterez
ils / elles achèteront

JETER (to throw)

t tt

je jetterai (I will throw)
tu jetteras
il / elle jettera

nous jetterons
vous jetterez
ils / elles jetteront

The most important verbs with e è changing: acheter (to buy), lever (to lift), geler (freeze):

j’achèterai, tu achèteras …
je lèverai, tu lèveras …
je gèlerai, tu gèleras …

The most important verbs with consonant doubling (t tt or l ll): jeter (to throw), appeler (to call), épeler (to spell), projeter (to plan):

je jetterai, tu jetteras …
j’appellerai, tu appelleras …
j’épellerai, tu épelleras …
je projetterai, tu projetteras …

PAYER and ESSAYER

These two verbs can either change y to i or preserve y:

PAYER (to pay): je payerai / je paierai
ESSAYER (to try): j’essayerai / j’essaierai

Infinitives with -oyer, -uyer endings:

y i changing is obligatory!

NETTOYER (to clean): je nettoierai
APPUYER (to push): j’appuierai