French Verb Conjugation: Less Scary Than It Looks

French conjugation hides an elegant secret: in spoken French, the system is far simpler than it appears on paper. Many of those different written forms? Pronounced identically.

The Three Groups

French verbs end in -er, -ir, or -re. About 90% are -er verbs — and nearly all new French words (like googler) follow that pattern.

Present Tense

Pronoun	parler (-er)	finir (-ir)	vendre (-re)
je	parle	finis	vends
tu	parles	finis	vends
il/elle/on	parle	finit	vend
nous	parlons	finissons	vendons
vous	parlez	finissez	vendez
ils/elles	parlent	finissent	vendent

The Spoken French Secret

For -er verbs, je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent all sound exactly the same: /parl/. Four spellings, one pronunciation. Only nous and vous sound different. In conversation, context does the heavy lifting.

Passé Composé: The Past Tense You Actually Use

Built from a helper verb (avoir or être) + past participle.

Group	Participle pattern	Example
-er → -é	parler → parlé	J'ai parlé (I spoke)
-ir → -i	finir → fini	J'ai fini (I finished)
-re → -u	vendre → vendu	J'ai vendu (I sold)

Movement/change-of-state verbs use être instead, and the participle agrees with the subject: Elle est allée (she went), Ils sont partis (they left). The classic mnemonic: DR MRS VANDERTRAMP.

Cultural tip card about spoken French pronunciation differences from written French — What textbooks don't teach about how French is actually spoken

Passé Composé vs. Imparfait

Passé composé = completed event: J'ai mangé une crêpe ce matin.
Imparfait = ongoing/habitual: Quand j'étais petit, je mangeais des crêpes tous les dimanches.

Together they create narrative: Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was sleeping when the phone rang.) Background + foreground.

Five Verbs You Can't Avoid

Verb	Present (je)	Meaning
être	suis	to be
avoir	ai	to have
aller	vais	to go
faire	fais	to do/make
pouvoir	peux	to be able to

Aller also forms the near future: je vais manger (I'm going to eat). In everyday speech, this has mostly replaced the formal future tense.

Quick reference card showing essential irregular French verbs with conjugations — Master these irregular verbs to understand most everyday French conversations

Building Fluency

The gap between written and spoken French means reading and listening must work together. Belugaro bridges that gap by embedding French vocabulary into the websites you already browse — so you see ils parlent on screen while your brain connects it to the /parl/ you hear in conversation.