Mater The Most General Rule of French Verb Conjugation
Start learning the Core Rules behind French Verb Conjugation across all three verb groups
Note: In all articles, il and ils are used to represent il/elle and ils/elles.
Compared with English, French verb conjugation includes many more tenses, which can make it difficult to keep track of all the different verb forms.
The good news is that most French tenses follow a few shared patterns. Once you understand these patterns, conjugation becomes much easier to manage.
In most cases, French tenses are built from verb stems derived from the present indicative, with different endings added depending on the grammatical person. This principle applies to the majority of verbs, including many irregular verbs. Only a small number of third-group irregular verbs behave differently.
Why the Present Indicative Matters So Much?
Because many tenses are built from these stems, learning the present indicative forms of a verb allows you to derive several other tenses at the same time.
This is particularly important for third-group irregular verbs, since their present forms often determine the stems used in other tenses.
Even so, memorizing every verb may still seem like a big task. Fortunately, first-group and second-group verbs follow fairly regular patterns in the present indicative, which makes them much easier to learn.
While some first-group verbs include minor spelling or stem changes, these exceptions are relatively limited.
1. The Imperfect Tense (l’imparfait)
The imperfect tense follows a very consistent rule.
Stem: the nous form of the present indicative
| je | -ais |
| tu | -ais |
| il | -ait |
| nous | -ions |
| vous | -iez |
| ils | -aient |
2. The Present Subjunctive (subjonctif présent)
The present subjunctive uses two different stems depending on the person.
- nous / vous forms
Stem: the present-tense nous stem
| nous | -ions |
| vous | -iez |
- all other persons (je, tu, il, ils)
Stem: the present-tense ils stem
| je | -e |
| tu | -es |
| il | -e |
3. The Simple Future and the Present Conditional
The simple future and the present conditional work a little differently.
These two tenses share the same stem, which is usually the infinitive form of the verb. This stem typically ends in -r and remains the same for every grammatical person.
What changes are the endings.
- Simple Future (futur simple)
| je | -ai |
| tu | -as |
| il | -a |
| nous | -ons |
| vous | -ez |
| ils | -ont |
- Present Conditional (conditionnel présent)
| je | -ais |
| tu | -ais |
| il | -ait |
| nous | -ions |
| vous | -iez |
| ils | -aient |
You may notice something interesting here:
These endings are exactly the same as the endings used in the imperfect tense.
4. Passé Composé
For the passé composé, what you mainly need to remember is the past participle of the verb, along with the present indicative conjugation of the auxiliary verbs:
- avoir
- être
Which French Tenses Should You Focus On?
Modern French uses a wide range of tenses, including:
- Present indicative
- Imperfect
- Passé composé
- Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait)
- Simple future
- Present conditional
- Past conditional
- Present subjunctive
- Past subjunctive
However, in practice, you can focus primarily on six key tenses:
- Present indicative
- Imperfect
- Present subjunctive
- Simple future
- Present conditional
- Passé composé
The reason is simple: several other tenses are compound tenses built from these, using auxiliary verbs.
For example:
- Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait) : auxiliary verb in the imperfect + past participle
- Past Conditional (conditionnel passé) : auxiliary verb in the present conditional + past participle
- Past Subjunctive (subjonctif passé) : auxiliary verb in the present subjunctive + past participle
As you can see, understanding a few core patterns can greatly simplify French verb conjugation. Now you can start practicing with the present indicative of third-group irregular verbs.