French Conjugation: The Current Tense

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

After I was a secondary college scholar studying French, it appeared unimaginable to discover ways to conjugate probably the most fundamental verbs, not to mention grasp French conjugation.

Even so, I made a decision to check languages at college. I lived in France and Belgium, and ended up educating French to folks from all around the world.

Right now, I converse French every 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 at present, I’d have develop into fluent sooner.

So as an alternative, I’ll share it with you!

To grasp French conjugation, it’s essential 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 selected 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 relating to conjugation within the current tense. This implies you’ll be able to apply your information to all the opposite first group verbs and conjugate décider, arriver, manger, and hundreds extra.

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

Consider the verbs you employ each day in English—”to have”, “to go”, “to return”, “to do”… You’d use them regularly in French as nicely—avoir, aller, venir, faire… All of them belong to the third group.

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

Let’s conjugate a few of 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 listing is just not so as of frequency.

Instance sentence: Je parle français. (“I converse 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’ll be able to see within the chart, the ending for every individual is totally different.

Instance sentence: Tu penses à quoi? (“What are you pondering 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 an alternative of claiming je aime, we should always say j’aime.

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

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

Word: You already know this verb. How? Consider the primary sentence you’ve discovered in French. It’s in all probability je m’appelle. Though it’s used as “my title is,” its literal that 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 good friend.”)

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

Word: Whereas we’re conjugating, we should bear in mind the pronunciation as nicely. French is just not a phonetic language, which signifies that it’s not pronounced the identical manner it’s written.

Now take a look at nous mangeons. It seems like there’s an additional -e there, proper? It’s simply there in order that the G in mangeons seems 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 at all times silent. For this reason 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 precise ending. We will apply this to all the second group verbs.

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

Word: Choisir belongs to the second group as nicely 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 suggest studying it very nicely as—spoiler alert—être shall be crucial 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 an alternative of “I’m 25 years previous.”

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

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

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

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

Word: Have you ever seen one thing in frequent 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, take a look at aller this time!

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

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

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

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

Word: Try the similarities between the conjugations of vouloir, pouvoir, and savoir.

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

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

Word: In French, there are a lot of vital verbs that derive from prendre. Comprendre, for instance, means “to know.” You’d conjugate it the identical manner as prendre.

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

Listed here are another methods to type detrimental sentences in French:

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

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

Amongst these six conjugations, parle, parles and parlent are all pronounced the identical. That’s 4 out of six which implies that you’ve got greater than a 50% likelihood of getting the pronunciation proper! That is solely one of many explanation why talking French is less complicated than you suppose. You solely have to discover ways to say the nous type and the vous type, which isn’t that tough—you simply don’t pronounce the final letter.

In French, there’s additionally another phrase for nous. It’s referred to as on and it means “we,” similar to nous. However on is conjugated in the identical manner as il/elle, not nous. Native audio system use on as an alternative of nous in casual conditions corresponding to when they’re talking with their associates. So when you say on parle as an alternative of claiming nous parlons, you’d sound extra fluent. Plus, it’s simpler to conjugate.

This may enhance your confidence as you’ll begin to perceive French increasingly. Once you be taught the frequent verbs, you’ll be capable to conjugate the extra unusual ones extra simply as nicely.

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

Attempt figuring out these patterns so that you just’ll spend much less time discovering the precise conjugation for every verb.

Don’t be afraid to talk although you’re not 100% certain if you’re conjugating the verbs accurately. In case you don’t know a phrase, there’s at all times a solution to work round it to make your self understood.

By talking with fellow French audio system, you’re going to get numerous talking follow, together with conjugation.

Moreover bettering your vocabulary, you’ll additionally hear correctly-conjugated French verbs on a regular basis. Plus, you’ll hearken to good songs and watch cool movies. Win-win!

You should use totally different strategies to practise your verbs and see what works finest for you. Writing verbs on flashcards, studying them out loud, or utilizing a language studying app can all be choices.

Additionally, take into account that everybody has a special studying fashion. For instance, I be taught by writing and talking.

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

Subsequent articles? Probably!

Bonne likelihood! (“Good luck!”)