Conjugate French Verbs

We all very well know that the thought of the French language and conjugating French verbs can get a lot of students jittery, especially when it is their first French exam ever. It's so simple for those who are from countries that speak French, but for those of us who aren't, it seems like this never ending list of words creating chaos in your mind. To add to it, there is a list of regular verbs and irregular verbs that needs to be memorized! Just how does one go about it then? Here's how... Start with the most elementary of all the verbs, être and avoir to be precise. Once you get the hang of these two verbs, French verb conjugation will seem like a cakewalk. I hope the following conjugation pointers help you out.

Memorizing Pronouns

I know that you're looking to conjugate French verbs, but your pronouns are the first step. Although verbs are an important aspect of the language, you cannot get there without memorizing the pronouns. Make sure you remember all the personal pronouns, preferably in the following order.

TYPE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
1st person	je	nous
2nd person	tu	vous
3rd person (m)	il	ils
3rd person (f)	elle	elles

Once this step is taken care of, you can move on to the verbs without any hesitation.

Types of Verbs

There are two basic categories of verbs in French, regular verbs and irregular verbs. Each of these is further categorized into 'er' verbs, 'ir' verbs and 're' verbs. While conjugating regular verbs is quite simple, it is the irregular ones that could occasionally get a little confusing. This is because regular verbs generally follow a specific pattern for conjugation, whereas, irregulars do not. The best way to learn how to conjugate French verbs is by starting with the important ones, i.e. Être and Avoir.

Conjugating Être and Avoir

The verbs être and avoir are two of the most important irregular verbs in French. They form the base to a lot of other grammatical aspects of the language. Once you manage getting familiar with them, it's like half your battle's won. Take a look at the chart below if you need to go over these verbs.

PRONOUN	CONJUGATION (ÊTRE)	CONJUGATION (AVOIR)
je	suis	ai
tu	es	as
il/elle	est	a
*on	est	a
nous	sommes	avons
vous	êtes	avez
ils/elles	sont	ont

*'On' is generally used for third person (neutral). Its English equivalent would be the term 'one'.

Now that these verbs are out of the way, you can move on to other verbs. It is best advised to start with regular 'er' verbs, as a large number of regular verbs in French belong to this particular category. The rules are so simple that you wouldn't have a problem another day in your life if you keep up with them.

Conjugating Regular 'ER' Verbs

In order to simplify this process, we could use one of the most common examples of a regular 'er' verb, Parler (to speak). Most verbs that belong to this category have the same endings. This is how you do it. Begin with learning the following: 'e' for je, 'es' for tu, 'e' for il/ elle, 'ons' for nous, 'ez' for vous, 'ent' for ils/ elles. Once you know these, the next step is to remember to drop the ER from the infinitive, and add the given endings to their respective pronouns. So your conjugation for parler should be like:

• Je parle
• Tu parles
• Il/ Elle parle
• Nous parlons
• Vous parlez
• Ils/ Elles parlent

Once you're done with these conjugations, you could go on to conjugate some regular 'ir' verbs.

Conjugating Regular 'IR' Verbs

The rules do not really change here. The only thing that does is the endings. Keeping with the endings given for this group of verbs, follow the above mentioned steps, and you are good to go. In the same order as before (je, tu, il...) here are the endings for IR verbs... is, is, it, issons, issez, issent. Want to try a conjugation now? How about Finir (to finish)? This is how it's done...

• Je finis
• Tu finis
• Il/Elle finit
• Nous finissons
• Vous finissez
• Ils/ Elles finissent

Finally comes the 'RE' group of verbs.

Conjugating Regular 'RE' Verbs

Quite possibly the group with less number of verbs than the first two, 're' verbs are just as simple to conjugate. The endings for these verbs are as follows: s, s, --, ons, ez, ent. Don't forget that the rules are still the same. As an example, we could take a look at the conjugation for the verb Vendre (to sell).

• Je vends
• Tu vends
• Il/ Elle vend
• Nous vendons
• Vous vendez
• Ils/ Elles vendent

Once you know how to conjugate French verbs être and avoir, along with the regular verbs from the 'er', 'ir' and 're' group, you can move on to conjugate these French verbs in passé composé.

Conjugating Verbs in Passé Composé

Passé Composé! The very thought of the words send shivers down the spines of several students. All those past participles and the effort to remember what works with which auxiliary verb... It's just crazy!! But, I'm hoping that you don't feel the same way about this particular tense. Trust me, passé composé is just like math. A mere mind-block! So let's get started with how to conjugate French verbs in the tense passé composé.

Every verb must be paired with either être or avoir, the verbs which act as the auxiliary verbs. Once you have this part figured out, the past participles are no difficulty at all. You either have a list of irregular ones which are best learned by heart or the regulars which follow a fixed pattern. An easy way to remember these verbs is to keep in mind that roughly 12 to 15 verbs and their variants that are conjugated with être. Those along with all reflexive verbs are supported by être. Apart from that, every verb works with avoir.

Past Participles

While past participles have to agree with the subject (personal pronoun, etc) when used with être, there are no such rules for those used with avoir. Here are the past participles for the 3 main groups.

Past Participle for ER Verbs: Drop the 'e' and replace it with 'é'. E.g. Parler: j'ai parlé, but for 'tomber': elle est tombée.
Note the extra 'e' as it is being used for feminine.

Past Participle for IR Verbs: Simply drop the 'r'. E.g. Finir:j'ai fini, but 'partir': elles sont parties.
Note the extra 'es' as it is being used for feminine plural.

Past Participle for RE Verbs: Drop the 're' and add a 'u'. E.g. Vendre: j'ai vendu, whereas 'descendre' is: nous sommes descendus.
Note the 's' as it is being used for plural.

Once you're done with these, you could even try your luck with other phrases, greetings, etc. I think this is where we can put an end to so much French and how to conjugate French verbs. Hope this article was handy and helps you learn your conjugations well. Bonne chance!