French Conjugation: The Current Tense

Do you discover French conjugation scary? If sure, you aren’t alone. Many learners assume the identical, particularly to start with.

Once I was a secondary college scholar studying French, it appeared inconceivable to learn to conjugate probably the most primary verbs, not to mention grasp French conjugation.

Even so, I made a decision to review languages at college. I lived in France and Belgium, and ended up instructing French to folks from everywhere in the world.

In the present day, I communicate French each day.

The conjugations that scared me a lot come naturally to me now. If I may return in time and apply the information I had as we speak, I might have change into fluent sooner.

So as a substitute, I’ll share it with you!

To grasp French conjugation, it is advisable to know the several types of French verbs. We will divide French verbs into three teams:

• First group verbs: common verbs ending with -er, like parler
• Second group verbs: common verbs ending with -ir, like choisir
• Third group verbs: irregular verbs that don’t observe a particular rule, like faire

What’s the distinction between common and irregular verbs? The conjugation of irregular verbs doesn’t observe a sample, like with common verbs.

Take a look at this desk which compares the common verb parler (“to talk”) to the irregular verb être (“to be”)

Are you able to see how parler follows a sample and être doesn’t? That’s the distinction between common and irregular verbs in French.

I’ve a bit of fine information and a bit of dangerous information.

Excellent news: 80% of French verbs belong to the primary group, common verbs. If you know the way to conjugate one in every of these verbs, it means which you could conjugate all of them.

For instance, the verb parler, (“to talk”) belongs to the primary group. All the opposite first group verbs observe the identical logic as parler with regards to conjugation within the current tense. This implies you may apply your information to all the opposite first group verbs and conjugate décider, arriver, manger, and hundreds extra.

Unhealthy information, now? Among the most typical verbs in French are third group verbs, which suggests they aren’t common.

Consider the verbs you employ day-after-day in English—”to have”, “to go”, “to return”, “to do”… You’ll use them frequently in French as effectively—avoir, aller, venir, faire… All of them belong to the third group.

Studying the most typical French verbs wouldn’t solely velocity up your studying, however it would additionally aid you get extra fluent and extra assured whilst you’re utilizing the language.

Let’s conjugate among the most typical verbs collectively. To make it simpler, we’ll begin with the primary group verbs after which transfer on to the irregular third group verbs.

Remember that this checklist is just not so as of frequency.

Instance sentence: Je parle français. (“I communicate French.”)

Word: Parler is a primary group verb. Right here is how we conjugate these verbs in French current tense: we take away the -er and add the proper ending. As you may see within the chart, the ending for every individual is totally different.

Instance sentence: Tu penses à quoi? (“What are you considering of?”)

Word: Penser can also be a primary group verb so we conjugate it the identical manner as parler, utilizing the identical endings.

Instance sentence: Il aime sa famille. (“He loves his household.”)

Word: When the verb begins with a vowel, we do a contraction for je and for je solely. For instance, as a substitute of claiming je aime, we must always say j’aime.

Instance sentence: Vous regardez la télé tous les jours. (“You watch TV day-after-day.”)

Instance sentence: Ma mère m’appelle. (“My mom is asking me.”)

Word: You already know this verb. How? Consider the primary sentence you’ve realized in French. It’s in all probability je m’appelle. Though it’s used as “my identify is,” its literal which means is “I name myself.” Is smart proper?

Instance: Je donne le livre à ma sœur. (“I givethe e-book to my sister.”)

Instance: J’aide mon ami. (“I assist my pal.”)

Instance: Je mange trop de sucre. (“I eat an excessive amount of sugar.”)

Word: Whereas we’re conjugating, we should take into accout the pronunciation as effectively. French is just not a phonetic language, which signifies that it’s not pronounced the identical manner it’s written.

Now try nous mangeons. It appears like there’s an additional -e there, proper? It’s simply there in order that the G in mangeons appears like the remainder of the verb.

Instance: Elle habite à Paris. (“She lives in Paris.”)

Word: The letter “h” often counts as a vowel in French and it’s all the time silent. That is why we are saying j’habite and never je habite.

Instance: Elles finissent dans 10 minutes. (“They end in 10 minutes.”)

Word: Finir is a second group verb. To conjugate these verbs, we first take away the -ir infinitive and add the best ending. We will apply this to the entire second group verbs.

Instance: Je choisis la deuxième choice. (“I select the second choice.”)

Word: Choisir belongs to the second group as effectively so it has the identical endings as finir.

12. Être (“To Be”)

Instance sentence: Je suis malade. (“I’m sick”)

Word: Though être is an irregular verb, it’s prone to be one of many first verbs you be taught in French. I’d advocate studying it very effectively as—spoiler alert—être might be essential as you be taught different tenses in French.

Instance sentence: J’ai 25 ans. (“I’m 25 years previous.”)

Tip: Don’t overlook that we use the verb avoir, not être to speak about our age in French. You’re actually saying “I’ve 25 years” as a substitute of “I’m 25 years previous.”

Instance sentence: Mon frère va à l’école. (“My brother goes to highschool.”)

Tip: Aller is a tough verb. Though it ends with -er, it’s an irregular verb and it belongs to the third group. You may see that its conjugation could be very totally different from first group verbs.

Instance sentence: Tu viens du sud. (“You come from the south.”)

Word: Similar to the verb aller, venir can also be a third-group verb—don’t let the -ir ending idiot you.

Word: Have you ever observed one thing in widespread between faire and venir? In each these verbs, je and tu are conjugated the identical manner. Il/elle finish with -t, nous ends with -ons, and vous ends with -ez.

What about ils/elles in faire? That’s very totally different from venir. Properly, try aller this time!

Instance sentence: Je fais du sport tous les jours. (“I do sports activities day-after-day.”)

Instance sentence: Il veut beaucoup de cadeaux pour son anniversaire. (“He desires a whole lot of presents for his birthday.”)

Instance sentence: Je peux parler français. (“I can communicate French.”)

Instance sentence: Je ne sais pas. (“I don’t know.”)

Word: Take a look at the similarities between the conjugations of vouloir, pouvoir, and savoir.

Instance sentence: Je vois une voiture devant le supermarché. (“I see a automotive in entrance of the grocery store.”)

Instance sentence: Vous prenez le bus à 10h. (“You are taking the bus at 10 o’clock.”)

Word: In French, there are various necessary verbs that derive from prendre. Comprendre, for instance, means “to grasp.” You’ll conjugate it the identical manner as prendre.

The most typical method to make a unfavorable sentence in French is to make use of the phrases ne and pas. The verb would go in the midst of these two phrases. In the event you test instance 19, you will notice the negation in motion: je ne sais pas (“I don’t know”).

Listed here are another methods to kind unfavorable sentences in French:

It’s true that spelling these verbs accurately is necessary, particularly in case you’re a scholar. However don’t overlook that pronunciation is equally necessary. That is the half the place it will get simpler although.

Let’s clarify through the use of the verb parler once more. As we simply lined, the current tense conjugations for the verb parler are je parle, tu parles, il/elle parle, nous parlons, vouz parlez, ils/elles parlent.

It will enhance your confidence as you’ll begin to perceive French increasingly more. Once you be taught the widespread verbs, you’ll be capable of conjugate the extra unusual ones extra simply as effectively.

Even in irregular verbs, there are some patterns. For instance, vous conjugations finish with -ez in lots of verbs.

Strive figuring out these patterns so that you simply’ll spend much less time discovering the best conjugation for every verb.

Don’t be afraid to talk though you’re not 100% certain if you’re conjugating the verbs accurately. In the event you don’t know a phrase, there may be all the time a method to work round it to make your self understood.

I’d say when you’re assured conjugating aller, venir, avoir, and être and a handful of the widespread verbs, you may transfer on to futur proche (close to future) or passé composé (current good/easy previous).

Subsequent articles? Probably!

Bonne likelihood! (“Good luck!”)