One of the most exciting parts of your language journey is the very beginning, when it feels like the world is open to you. You spend time imagining yourself sitting on the French Riviera, and confidently ordering a croissant at a bakery. Then, that vision becomes cloudy as you come to think about your more immediate future: learning grammar rules and (gulp…) French verb conjugation. But don’t let that ruin your fun! Learning to conjugate a French verb isn’t as hard as you might think, especially because there are some predictable rules and conjugation patterns that will help you with conquer hundreds of verbs easily.
Mastering French conjugation of regular -ir, -er, and -re verbs is essential for fluency in the French language. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of conjugating these verb groups in the present, past (passe compose), future, and imperfect. There are irregular verbs you’ll also need to memorize — pouvoir, aller, avoir, être, etc. — but working on these rules is a great first step.
French Conjugation of -Ir Verbs
Starting with -ir, we’ll walk you through the conjugations using the verb infinitive finir (“to finish”), but other verbs including nourrir (definition: “to feed”), choisir (“to choose”) and partir (“to leave”) follow the same pattern.
Present -ir
| je finis (“I finish”) | nous finissons (“we finish”) |
| tu finis (“you finish”) | vous finissez (“you finish”) |
| il/elle/on finit (“he/she/one finishes”) | ils/elles finissent (“they finish”) |
Past -ir
The past tense works a bit differently than the present tense in French. Here, all of the -ir verb endings are replaced with the same thing: -i. To distinguish between them, the verb avoir changes to the present tense.
| j’ai fini (“I finished”) | nous avons fini (“we finished”) |
| tu as fini (“you finished”) | vous avez fini (“you finished”) |
| il/elle/on a fini (“he/she/one finished”) | ils/elles ont fini (“they finished”) |
Future -ir
| je finirai (“I will finish”) | nous finirons (“we will finish”) |
| tu finiras (“you will finish”) | vous finirez (“you will finish”) |
| il/elle/on finira (“he/she/one will finish”) | ils/elles finiront (“they will finish”) |
Imperfect -ir
L’imparfait in French is used to refer to actions that were repeated or ongoing in the past.
| je finissais (“I used to finish”) | nous finissions (“we used to finish”) |
| tu finissais (“you used to finish”) | vous finissiez (“you used to finish”) |
| il/elle/on finissait (“he/she/one used to finish”) | ils/elles finissaient (“they used to finish”) |
Conjugating -ER Verbs
Next up we have regular verbs that end in -er, using parler (“to speak”) as our main example. Other common -er verbs include chercher (“to search”), étudier (“to study”) and aimer (“to love/like”). Now, let’s look at the correct way to use these verb forms.
Present -er
| je parle (“I speak”) | nous parlons (“we speak”) |
| tu parles (“you speak”) | vous parlez (“you speak”) |
| il/elle/on parle (“he/she/one speaks”) | ils/elles parlent (“they speak”) |
Past -er
Just like with the -ir verbs, here the same ending is added, with -er replaced by é. Pro tip: You’ll need to add and conjugate avoir in a way that reflects the subject of the sentence. See the conjugation table below for examples.
| j’ai parlé (“I spoke”) | nous avons parlé (“we spoke”) |
| tu as parlé (“you spoke”) | vous avez parlé (“you spoke”) |
| il/elle/on a parlé (“he/she/one spoke”) | ils/elles ont parlé (“they spoke”) |
Future -er
| je parlerai (“I will speak”) | nous parlerons (“we will speak”) |
| tu parleras (“you will speak”) | vous parlerez (“you will speak”) |
| il/elle/on parlera (“he/she/one will speak”) | ils/elles parleront (“they will speak”) |
Imperfect -er
| je parlais (“I used to speak”) | nous parlions (“we used to speak”) |
| tu parlais (“you used to speak”) | vous parliez (“you used to speak”) |
| il/elle/on parlait (“he/she/one used to speak”) | ils/elles parlaient (“they used to speak”) |
Learn How to Conjugate -Re Verbs
The last lesson in this article is all about -re verbs. We’ll use vendre (“to sell”) as our example here, but it applies to all common verbs ending in -re, including attendre (“to wait”), perdre (“to lose”) and entendre (“to hear”).
Present -re
One thing to note here is that the third person singular form of -er verbs has no ending at all, and so it’s just the stem alone (in this case, vend).
| je vends (“I sell”) | nous vendons (“we sell”) |
| tu vends (“you sell”) | vous vendez (“you sell”) |
| il/elle/on vend (“he/she/one sells”) | ils/elles vendent (“they sell”) |
Past -re
Once again we’ll mention the past tense ending on the main verb is the same for every conjugation — -re becomes -u — but you’ll need to add and conjugate (in the present tense!) the irregular auxiliary verb avoir.
| j’ai vendu (“I sold”) | nous avons vendu (“we sold”) |
| tu as vendu (“you sold”) | vous avez vendu (“you sold”) |
| il/elle/on a vendu (“he/she/one sold”) | ils/elles ont vendu (“they sold”) |
Future -re
| je vendrai (“I will sell”) | nous vendrons (“we will sell”) |
| tu vendras (“you will sell”) | vous vendrez (“you will sell”) |
| il/elle/on vendra (“he/she/one will sell”) | ils/elles vendront (“they will sell”) |
Imperfect -re
| je vendais (“I used to sell”) | nous vendions (“we used to sell”) |
| tu vendais (“you used to sell”) | vous vendiez (“you used to sell”) |
| il/elle/on vendait (“he/she/one used to sell”) | ils/elles vendaient (“they used to sell”) |
French Verb Conjugations: Practice Makes Perfect
Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of how to conjugate -ir, -er and -re words in multiple verb tenses it’s time to put your knowledge into action. Practicing regularly will help you build confidence using French verbs in any context or conversation.
So give it a go – get out there, learn French from real French people, practice with them, and communicate without fear of making mistakes. Soon you’ll be throwing out French verbs effortlessly in any context. And then, who knows, maybe you’ll start feeling confident enough to move onto irregular verbs in French, along with trickier conjugations like the subjunctive. Bonne chance ! (Good luck!)