Main / Auxiliary Verbs
Avoir and être are the most important verbs in French. In addition to be widely used, they work as auxiliaries in the simple past tense (passé composé).
| avoir (to have) | être (to be) | |
| Je (I) | ai | suis |
| Tu (You) | as | es |
| Il / Elle / On (He / She / It) | a | est |
| Nous (We) | avons | sommes |
| Vous (You) | avez | êtes |
| Ils / Elles (They) | ont | sont |
Regular Verbs
Regular verbs ended with -ER, -IR and -RE have almost identical conjugation in the present tense. To build present tense, remove their termination in the infinitive, adding the present tense conjugation according to the table below.
.
| parler (to talk)
- ER |
finir (to finish)
- IR |
perdre (to lose)
- RE | |
| Je (I) | parle | finis | perds |
| Tu (You) | parles | finis | perds |
| Il / Elle / On (He / She / It) | parle | finit | perd |
| Nous (We) | parlons | finissons | perdons |
| Vous (You) | parlez | finissez | perdez |
| Ils / Elles (They) | parlent | finissent | perdent |
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs behave differently from regular verbs. The most important irregular verbs and their conjugations can be found below.
| aller (to go) | boire (to drink) | connaître (to know) | |
| Je (I) | vais | bois | connais |
| Tu (You) | vas | bois | connais |
| Il / Elle / On (He / She / It) | va | boit | connaît |
| Nous (We) | allons | buvons | connaissons |
| Vous (You) | allez | buvez | connaissez |
| Ils / Elles (They) | vont | boivent | connaissent |
| faire (to do) | pendre (to take) | venir (to come) | |
| Je (I) | fais | prends | viens |
| Tu (You) | fais | prends | viens |
| Il / Elle / On (He / She / It) | fait | prend | vient |
| Nous (We) | faisons | prenons | venons |
| Vous (You) | faites | prenez | venez |
| Ils / Elles (They) | font | prennent | viennent |