The bane of every French student, or so I hear. Here’re my notes on conjugation. (in progress)

Present

ER verbs

Drop ‘ER’, add ending:

Irregular ER verbs

• Aller: je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont
• -CER verbs: for nous, change c to ç – commencer → nous commençons, to avoid making a ‘c’ sound as in ‘cold’
• -GER verbs: as for -CER verbs, we want to avoid making a hard sound, so add e after the g. manger → nous mangeons
• Stem-changing verbs (later)

IR verbs

Drop ‘IR’, add ending:

Irregular IR verbs

dormir, mentir, partir, sentir, servir, sortir:

couvrir, cueillir, découvrir, offrir, ouvrir, souffrir (conjugated like -ER verbs):

Completely irregular:

• asseoir
• pleuvoir
• valoir
• courir
• pouvoir
• venir
• devoir
• recevoir
• voir
• falloir
• savoir
• vouloir
• mourir
• tenir

RE verbs

Drop ‘RE’, add ending:

Irregular RE verbs

prendre, etc:

battre, etc & mettre, etc:

rompre etc:

-aindre, -eindre, -oindre: (eg ‘peindre’)

Completely irregular:

…

Futur (indicatif)

ER/IR verbs: Add ending to infinitive
RE verbs: Drop final E before adding ending

Je parlerai
Nous parlerons
Tu parleras
Vous parlerez
Il parlera
Ils parleront

Irregular verbs

Verb and future stem, to be used with above ending

• être – ser-
• avoir – aur-
• faire – fer-
• aller – ir-
• voir – verr- (and revoir)
• acheter – achèter- (and achever, amener, emmener, lever, promener)
• appeler – appeller- (and épeler, jeter, projeter, rappeler)
• devoir – devr-
• envoyer – enverr-
• essayer – essaier- (and employer, ennuyer, nettoyer, payer)
• pleuvoir – pleuvr-
• pouvoir – pourr-
• savoir – saur-
• venir – viendr- (and revenir, devenir, parvenier)
• vouloir – voudr-

Je serai ici
Tu auras deux
Nous ferons une promenade

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