Language/French/Grammar/Conjugation-group-1-—-verbs-whose-infinitive-ends-in-—er

Conjugation group 1 — verbs whose infinitive ends in —er

The verbs of the first group are the most numerous (3,000 out of the 4,000 or so verbs in the French language).

These verbs are all regular, except 'envoyer'. (note, the verb 'aller', although ending with 'er' is irregular and from the 3rd group)

These transitive verbs form their compound tenses with the auxiliary 'avoir'. However, some active verbs with an intransitive sense form their compound tenses with the auxiliary 'être'. The main ones are: arriver, décéder, entrer, monter, rester, tomber.

Let us take as a model the verb 'CHANTER', whose stem is 'chant' and the ending '—er'.

Don't miss the chance to check out these pages as you wrap up this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Impersonal verbs & Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of —ment.

MODE INDICATIF

Présent	Imparfait	Passé simple	Futur simple
Je chante	Je chantais	Je chantai	Je chanterai
Tu chantes	Tu chantais	Tu chantas	Tu chanteras
Il chante	Il chantait	Il chanta	Il chantera
Nous chantons	Nous chantions	Nous chantâmes	Nous chanterons
Vous chantez	Vous chantiez	Vous chantâtes	Vous chanterez
Ils chantent	Ils chantaient	Ils chantèrent	Ils chanteront
Passé composé	Plus-que-parfait	Passé antérieur	Futur antérieur
J'ai chanté	J'avais chanté	J'eus chanté	J'aurai chanté
Tu as chanté	Tu avais chanté	Tu eus chanté	Tu auras chanté
Il a chanté	Il avait chanté	Il eut chanté	Il aura chanté
Nous avons chanté	Nous avions chanté	Nous eûmes chanté	Nous aurons chanté
Vous avez chanté	Vous aviez chanté	Vous eûtes chanté	Vous aurez chanté
Ils ont chanté	Ils avaient chanté	Ils eurent chanté	Ils auront chanté

MODE CONDITIONNEL

Présent	Passé
Je chanterais	J'aurais  chanté
Tu chanterais	Tu aurais chanté
Il chanterait	Il aurait chanté
Nous chanterions	Nous aurions chanté
Vous chanteriez	Vous auriez chanté
Ils chanteraient	Ils auraient chanté

MODE SUBJONCTIF

Présent	Passé	Imparfait	Plus-que-parfait
Je chante	J'aie chanté	Je chantasse	J'eusse chanté
Tu chantes	Tu aies chanté	Tu chantasses	Tu eusses chanté
Il chante	Il ait chanté	Il chantât	Il eût chanté
Nous chantions	Nous ayons chanté	Nous chantassions	Nous eussions chanté
Vous chantiez	Vous ayez chanté	Vous chantassiez	Vous eussiez chanté
Ils chantent	Ils aient chanté	Ils chantassent	Ils eussent chanté

 MODE IMPERATIF

Présent	Passé
Chante	Aie chanté
Chantons	Ayons chanté
Chantez	Ayez chanté

MODE INFINITIF

Présent	Passé
Chanter	Avoir chanté

MODE PARTICIPE

Présent	Passé
Chantant	Ayant chanté

Notes

• NB: Verbs whose stem ends in c or g are written ç and ge respectively before endings which begin with a or o: e.g. nous commençons, je mangeais.
• NB: Verbs of the -er conjugation whose stem changes, like compléter, espérer (and other verbs ending in -éter, -érer), appeler, mener, jeter, employer, nettoyer (and other verbs ending in -oyer - see 7.4) are individually listed under irregular verbs.

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

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Sources

• https://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-44220.php

Other Lessons

• Well Better Worse
• Mass versus count nouns
• Impersonal subject restricted to il
• Direct Object Complement
• tard versus en retard
• Omission of the article in noun constructions linked by de
• Pronominal Verbs
• French Ditransitive verbs
• Plural of Nouns
• Much More Little Less
• Agreement of the past participle following “être” with the subject of a passive
• Position of object pronouns with imperatives
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of —ment
• Demonstrative determiners
• Use of the definite article with titles