French Verb Conjugation: Endings, Tenses, and Key Verbs
French verbs change their ending to match the subject and the tense. The good news is that most verbs follow one of three predictable patterns based on their infinitive ending: -er, -ir, or -re. Learn those endings, add the handful of irregular verbs you use every day, and you can conjugate the great majority of French. This guide gives you the tables, the top irregulars, the present, past and future, and example sentences to say out loud.
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How conjugation works: the three groups
Every French verb has an infinitive, its dictionary form, ending in -er, -ir, or -re. To conjugate a regular verb in the present, you drop that ending to find the stem, then add a new ending that matches the subject. That is the whole mechanism, and it covers thousands of verbs.
- Group 1, -er verbs. By far the biggest group, roughly 90 percent of French verbs, including parler (to speak), aimer (to like), and travailler (to work). Almost all new verbs entering French join this group, so the -er pattern is the one to master first.
- Group 2, -ir verbs. Regular -ir verbs like finir (to finish) and choisir (to choose). Their tell is an added -iss- in the plural forms.
- Group 3, -re verbs and irregulars. Regular -re verbs like vendre (to sell) and attendre (to wait), plus the irregular verbs that follow no fixed pattern.
En français, les verbes se conjuguent en fonction de leur groupe. Pour conjuguer un verbe régulier au présent, on enlève la terminaison de l'infinitif et on ajoute les terminaisons appropriées selon le sujet. Par exemple, pour le verbe 'parler', on utilise 'je parle', 'tu parles', 'il/elle parle'.
The present tense, three regular models
Here are the three regular patterns side by side. Learn the endings in bold and you can conjugate any regular verb in its group.
| Subject | parler (-er) | finir (-ir) | vendre (-re) |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | parle | finis | vends |
| tu | parles | finis | vends |
| il/elle/on | parle | finit | vend |
| nous | parlons | finissons | vendons |
| vous | parlez | finissez | vendez |
| ils/elles | parlent | finissent | vendent |
Present tense of parler (to speak), finir (to finish), and vendre (to sell).
For -er verbs the je, tu, il, and ils/elles forms all sound identical out loud, because the endings -e, -es, and -ent are silent. Je parle, tu parles, and ils parlent are all pronounced the same. Only nous parlons and vous parlez add a heard sound. This is why speaking practice matters: the spelling differences you study on paper mostly disappear in speech.
The irregular verbs you cannot avoid
Four irregular verbs do so much work in French that you should learn them before anything else. They are also the helpers used to build other tenses, so they pay off twice.
| Subject | être (be) | avoir (have) | aller (go) | faire (do/make) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je/j' | suis | ai | vais | fais |
| tu | es | as | vas | fais |
| il/elle/on | est | a | va | fait |
| nous | sommes | avons | allons | faisons |
| vous | êtes | avez | allez | faites |
| ils/elles | sont | ont | vont | font |
Être and avoir alone let you say who or what something is and what you have, and both act as the helper verb for the past tense. Aller gives you an easy future (see below), and faire covers a huge range of everyday actions from cooking to weather.
Examples you can say out loud
Talking about the past: passé composé
The tense you will reach for most to describe the past is the passé composé. You build it with two pieces: a present-tense helper, usually avoir, plus the past participle of the main verb. For -er verbs the participle ends in -é, so parler becomes parlé.
| Subject | parler, past (avoir) | English |
|---|---|---|
| j' | ai parlé | I spoke / have spoken |
| tu | as parlé | you spoke |
| il/elle/on | a parlé | he/she spoke |
| nous | avons parlé | we spoke |
| vous | avez parlé | you spoke |
| ils/elles | ont parlé | they spoke |
A small set of verbs, mostly about movement and change (aller, venir, arriver, partir) and all reflexive verbs, use être as the helper instead of avoir. With être, the participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée (she went), ils sont allés (they went).
Talking about the future
The simplest future is the futur proche, the near future. Take aller in the present and add an infinitive, exactly like the English "going to." Je vais parler means "I am going to speak," and nous allons manger means "we are going to eat." This one construction lets you talk about the future on day one, before you learn the full future tense.
More sentences to practice
Do not force irregular verbs into the regular endings. Aller looks like an -er verb but is not, so "I go" is je vais, never "je alle." Mixing up regular and irregular endings (Confondre les terminaisons des verbes réguliers et irréguliers) is the most frequent slip, which is why the four core irregulars are worth memorizing cold.
Drill by subject, not by verb. Pick a few verbs and say every "je" form, then every "nous" form, and so on. Because the pronoun endings repeat across all regular verbs in a group, this builds the pattern into your ear instead of a hundred separate word-lists. Practice out loud (Pratiquez la conjugaison avec des exercices écrits et oraux).
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Frequently asked questions
Comment savoir si un verbe est régulier ou irrégulier?
Un verbe est régulier s'il suit les modèles de conjugaison standard des trois groupes. Les verbes en -er comme parler et les verbes en -ir comme finir sont réguliers, tandis que être, avoir, aller et faire sont irréguliers et doivent être mémorisés.
What are the three groups of French verbs?
French regular verbs fall into three groups by infinitive ending: group one is -er verbs like parler (the largest group by far), group two is -ir verbs like finir that add -iss- in the plural, and group three is -re verbs like vendre plus most irregular verbs.
Which French verbs should I learn to conjugate first?
Start with the four most common irregular verbs: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), and faire (to do or make). They appear constantly and also act as helpers to build other tenses, so learning them early unlocks a large share of everyday French.
How do you form the past tense in French?
The most common past tense is the passé composé, built with a present-tense helper (avoir or être) plus a past participle. For example, j'ai parlé means 'I spoke' or 'I have spoken,' and je suis allé means 'I went.' A handful of movement and reflexive verbs use être instead of avoir.