Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate regular verbs from all three French conjugation groups in the present tense.

Lesson Explanation

French verbs fall into three groups based on their infinitive ending: -er, -ir, and -re. The -er group is by far the largest and most regular, modeled here on parler (to speak): je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent.

A genuinely important pronunciation fact: in the -er group, the je, tu, il/elle, and ils/elles forms are all pronounced identically, despite different spellings — this connects directly to why subject pronouns are essential, as covered in the previous lesson.

Regular -ir verbs, modeled on finir (to finish): je finis, tu finis, il finit, nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent — note the distinctive -iss- insertion in the plural forms.

Regular -re verbs, modeled on vendre (to sell): je vends, tu vends, il vend, nous vendons, vous vendez, ils vendent.

A genuinely important warning: many common, high-frequency verbs that END in -ir or -re are actually irregular and don’t follow these patterns at all — venir (to come) and prendre (to take) must be learned individually, a caution similar to the irregular verb warnings from earlier-built Gabal courses.

Practice Questions