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French Present Tense — Regular Verbs

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The three verb groups (-er, -ir, -re) and the endings that let you conjugate any regular verb.

Three groups, three sets of endings

Regular French verbs fall into three groups by their infinitive ending: -er (the biggest: parler, to speak), -ir (finir, to finish), and -re (vendre, to sell). Once you know each group's endings, you can conjugate any regular verb you meet.

-er verbs: parler (to speak)

je parle, tu parles, il/elle parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent. Notice that je parle, tu parles and il parle all sound identical — the endings -e, -es and -ent are silent. Only nous and vous sound clearly different.

-ir verbs: finir (to finish)

je finis, tu finis, il/elle finit, nous finissons, vous finissez, ils/elles finissent. The -ir group keeps an -iss- in the plural forms — that's the sign of a regular -ir verb.

-re verbs: vendre (to sell)

je vends, tu vends, il/elle vend, nous vendons, vous vendez, ils/elles vendent. The -re group drops the final -re and adds -s, -s, (nothing), -ons, -ez, -ent.

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