Language/French/Grammar/Verb-forms-—-Conjugations
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Verb forms — Conjugations
For the purposes of systematic presentation, French verbs are best grouped into four conjugations.
These are:
- Verbs whose infinitive ends in -er (e.g. donner, chanter, parler). This is by far the largest group.
- Verbs whose infinitive ends in -ir. Within this group there are two subgroups:
- verbs whose stems sometimes end in -iss- (e.g. finir: fin-iss-ons, fin-issant, fin-iss-aient, etc.);
- verbs whose stems do not add -iss- (e.g. dormir, mentir).
- Verbs whose infinitive ends in -re (e.g. vendre, rendre).
- Verbs whose infinitive ends in -oir (e.g. recevoir).
Verbs which differ from this pattern are included in the list of irregular verbs.
Take some time to dive into these other pages after completing this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Pronouns & The French Alphabet.
Videos[edit | edit source]
The 3 French verb groups - YouTube[edit | edit source]
All 18 French Verb Tenses Explained in 12 Minutes! How Many Do ...[edit | edit source]
Basic French Verb Conjugation - (Present Tense) - YouTube[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Plurals of nouns ending in eu, au, eau
- tard versus en retard
- Location of adverbs modifying adjectives, prepositions, noun phrases and other adverbs
- Omission of the article in compound nouns linked by à
- y and en in French where the English translation has no preposition
- Plural forms of adjectives — Adjectives which end in al
- Omission of the article with nouns following the verbs être, demeurer, devenir, élire, nommer, rester
- Use of en
- Masculine Nouns Ending in ée
- Use of the definite article with names of countries, regions, départements
- Plurals of nouns ending in –al
- Days
- Indirect and Direct Transitive Verbs
- Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Order of cardinal numbers and adjectives
- Conjugation group 2 — verbs whose infinitive ends in —ir