Language/French/Grammar/Verb-forms-—-Conjugations

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.