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French - Verbs

Verbs in French express an action or a state of being. The biggest challenge for English speakers is the concept of conjugation. This means that a verb's ending changes depending on who is performing the action (the subject) and when the action is happening (the tense).

Verb Groups and Regular Conjugation

To make sense of conjugation, French verbs are traditionally divided into three groups based on the ending of their infinitive form (the basic, unconjugated form of the verb, like "to speak").

  • 1st Group (-er verbs): This is the largest group, containing over 80% of all French verbs. They follow a very predictable pattern. To conjugate them in the present tense, you drop the -er from the infinitive to find the "stem" and add the correct ending.

    Example: parler (to speak)

    • Stem: parl-
    • je parle (I speak)
    • tu parles (you speak)
    • il/elle/on parle (he/she/one speaks)
    • nous parlons (we speak)
    • vous parlez (you speak)
    • ils/elles parlent (they speak)

    Note: The verb aller (to go) ends in -er but is highly irregular and belongs to the 3rd group.

  • 2nd Group (-ir verbs): This is the next most common group. These verbs also follow a regular pattern, but with different endings. A key feature is the "-iss-" that appears in the plural forms.

    Example: finir (to finish)

    • Stem: fin-
    • je finis (I finish)
    • tu finis (you finish)
    • il/elle/on finit (he/she/one finishes)
    • nous finissons (we finish)
    • vous finissez (you finish)
    • ils/elles finissent (they finish)

  • 3rd Group (Irregular verbs): This is a "catch-all" group for all other verbs, including those ending in -re, -oir, and irregular -ir verbs. These verbs do not follow a consistent pattern and their conjugations must be memorized. The good news is that many of the most frequently used verbs fall into this category, so you will get plenty of practice with them.

The Two Most Important Verbs: Être and Avoir

Être (to be) and avoir (to have) are the two most fundamental verbs in French. They are both irregular and have essential functions:

  1. Their own meaning: être is used for descriptions, professions, and nationality, while avoir is used for possession, age, and expressions like being hungry or thirsty (avoir faim/soif).
  2. As Auxiliary (Helping) Verbs: They are used to form compound tenses, like the passé composé (the main past tense). Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary, but a specific group of verbs (often related to movement and state of being) use être.

Present Tense Conjugations:

Subject Être (to be) Avoir (to have)
je/j' suis ai
tu es as
il/elle/on est a
nous sommes avons
vous êtes avez
ils/elles sont ont

Key Tenses in French

While there are many tenses, beginners should focus on mastering these first.

  • Le Présent (The Present Tense): This tense is used to describe actions happening now, habitual actions, and general truths. For example, Je parle français can mean "I speak French," "I am speaking French," or "I do speak French."

  • Le Passé Composé (The Compound Past): This is the most common past tense, used for completed actions. It is a compound tense, meaning it's formed with two parts:

    1. The present tense of an auxiliary verb (avoir or être).
    2. The past participle of the main verb (e.g., for parler it's parlé; for finir it's fini).
    • J'ai parlé (I spoke / I have spoken)
    • Je suis allé(e) (I went)

  • L'Imparfait (The Imperfect): This past tense is used to describe ongoing conditions, habits, or actions in the past (what used to happen or was happening). For example, Quand j'étais jeune, je jouais au football (When I was young, I used to play soccer).

  • Le Futur Simple (The Simple Future): This tense describes what will happen. It's formed by adding specific endings to the infinitive form of the verb.

  • Le Futur Proche (The Near Future): This is a very common and easy way to talk about the future, equivalent to "going to" do something. It is formed with the present tense of aller + the infinitive of the main verb.

    • Je vais parler (I am going to speak)

Verb Moods

Moods indicate the speaker's attitude toward the action.

  • Indicative: The most common mood, used to state facts and objective reality (all the tenses listed above are in the indicative mood).
  • Imperative: Used to give commands (e.g., Parlez ! - Speak!).
  • Subjunctive: A more advanced concept, used to express doubt, desire, emotion, or uncertainty. It often appears in subordinate clauses.

Tenses that are less used

Several tenses in French are no longer used in everyday spoken language and are now almost exclusively found in formal, literary, or historical texts. While you might encounter them in classic novels or official documents, you would rarely, if ever, hear them in a conversation.

Here are the main tenses that have fallen out of common use:

Largely Replaced in Spoken French

  • Le Passé Simple (The Simple Past): This is the most well-known literary tense. It's the historical and literary equivalent of the passé composé. While the passé composé describes a completed past action with a connection to the present, the passé simple is used for narration to describe actions that are completely finished and detached from the present.
    • Modern Usage: In spoken French, the passé composé has almost entirely replaced the passé simple. However, the passé simple is still essential for reading French literature, even in children's books and fairy tales. You might also hear it in very formal speeches.

Almost Exclusively Literary Tenses

These tenses are even rarer than the passé simple and are confined to very formal and literary contexts. For most learners, being able to recognize them is more important than knowing how to conjugate them.

  • L'Imparfait du Subjonctif (The Imperfect Subjunctive): This tense is used in subordinate clauses to express doubt, emotion, or possibility in a past context.

    • Modern Usage: In modern French, both spoken and written, the present subjunctive or the past subjunctive is used instead. For example, a classic text might say, "Je voulais qu'il parlât" (I wanted him to speak), whereas contemporary French would be, "Je voulais qu'il parle."

  • Le Passé Antérieur (The Past Anterior): This tense describes a past action that happened immediately before another past action (which is often in the passé simple). It is the literary equivalent of the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect).

    • Modern Usage: In spoken language, the plus-que-parfait is used instead. You'll typically find the passé antérieur in literature following conjunctions like dès que or après que (as soon as, after).

  • Le Plus-que-Parfait du Subjonctif (The Pluperfect Subjunctive): This is a compound literary tense used to express a hypothetical or uncertain action in the past that occurred before another past action.

    • Modern Usage: Its use is extremely limited, mainly appearing in literature, and often only in the third-person singular. In modern language, other constructions, often involving the conditional past, would be used to express a similar idea.

In summary, while these tenses are part of the full grammatical landscape of the French language, they are not necessary for conversational fluency. The focus for learners should be on the tenses used in everyday communication, such as the présent, passé composé, imparfait, and futur simple.