French Lessons Basic conjugation.

French Lessons Basic conjugation is Chapter 1 from this free French Lessons for Business online course – plus you can listen along if you click through here and grab the full length audiobook available for ALL the lessons.

This chapter is useful for understanding basic conjugation enjoy.

Basic conjugation of French Verbs

This is a quick overview.  French verbs are conventionally divided into 3 conjugations, « conjugaisons » with the following grouping:

Conjugating First group Verbs in French

You’ve got all the verbs ending in « -ER ». It’s about 60% of them, except « aller » which belongs to the third. 

Conjugation Lesson Second group Verbs in French

You’ve got all the ending in « -IR » with the gerund ending in « -issant ». It’s about 30% of all French verbs.

Conjugating Third group Verbs in French

You’ve got all the rest. So, the first section is all the verbs ending in « IR » but with gerund ending in « -ant » And the second section comprises the verbs ending with all the other endings like « OIR », « -RE » It’s about 10% of all French verbs. 

Like in English, there are regular and irregular verbs. The regular ones are easy to conjugate because you’re just using the standard endings, depending on which group the verb belongs to. And then you’ve got the irregular verbs, which tend to be the most frequently used. They use the same endings but twist them slightly.

For example, in English a regular is “to accept”: accept, accepted, accepted.

An irregular verb would be “to blow”: blow, blew, blown. 

In French a regular verb, a typical one is « MANGER »: “to eat”. It ends in « -ER » in the first group. 

An irregular verb would be « AVOIR »: “to have”, « ALLER »: “to go”, « FAIRE »: “to do”/“to make”, and « ETRE »: “to be”.

With verbs, you must master the conjugations of the 6 persons in the present tense. 

After that, you can very easily master the future, past and passé composé. 

So here is an ultra-fast summary of some of the conjugation examples from each of the 3 groups. 

First group

MARCHER (TO WALK): present

Je marche: I walk

Tu marches: You walk

Il/Elle marche: He/She walks

Nous marchons: We walk

Vous marchez: You walk

Ils/Elles marchent: They walk

Second group

FINIR (TO END/TO FINISH): present

Je finis: I finish

Tu finis: You finish

Il/Elle finit: He/She finishes

Nous finissons: We finish

Vous finissez: You finish

Ils/Elles finissent: They finish

Conjugating Third group Verbs in French

DIRE (TO SAY): present

Je dis: I say

Tu dis: You say

Il/Elle dit: He/She says

Nous disons: We say

Vous dites: You say

Ils/Elles disent: They say

Watch out! « Vous dites » is highly irregular. 

3 Most Important Verbs

Now let’s conjugate very irregular but very important verbs. 

AVOIR (TO HAVE)

ETRE (TO BE)

ALLER (TO GO)

AVOIR (TO HAVE)

J’ai: I have

Tu as: You have

Il/Elle a: He/She has

Nous avons: We have

Vous avez: You have

Ils/Elles ont: They have

Conjugating The Verb ETRE

Now for ETRE (TO BE)

Je suis: I am

Tu es: You are

Il/Elle est: He/She is

Nous sommes: We are

Vous êtes: You are

Ils/Elles sont: They are

Now ALLER (TO GO)

Je vais: I go

Tu vas: You go

Il/Elle va: He/She goes

Nous allons: We go

Vous allez: You go

Ils/Elles vont: They go

It’s very important that you learn at least those three verbs by heart, the irregular ones and the regular ones with their endings, in the present tense.

Next we will refresh you on some very important sentence starters that you can use in any environment for any purpose. French Lessons Basic conjugation

As a result, this is a hyper massive chatpter! Thank you for sticking with it and persisting all the way through – its the best way to succeed. Please have a listen to the main full audiobook HERE as you work on each lesson. And check out this one HERE