Verbs in -er in the present tense
Almost all French verbs end in -er. You take off -er and add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent: je parle, nous parlons.
Why
You want to tell a friend from Charleroi what you do in your free time. Which words do you need?
You tell it with verbs in -er: Je joue au foot. J'écoute de la musique. Le samedi, nous regardons un film. About nine in ten French verbs end in -er.
Once you know the six endings, you can use hundreds of verbs straight away: parler, aimer, habiter, jouer, manger, chercher. Even new words like télécharger (to download) follow the same rule.
See it
Choose a verb and turn the wheel. The stem stays in the middle, the ending lights up for each person. With manger, commencer or acheter you see how the spelling changes.
Description of the picture
A wheel with the stem of the verb in the middle, for example parl. Around it are the six persons: je, tu, il or elle, nous, vous, ils or elles. For the chosen person the ending lights up: e, es, e, ons, ez or ent. The endings you cannot hear are grey. With manger an extra e appears with nous, with commencer a ç, with acheter a grave accent.
Get it
A verb in -er has a stem and an ending. Take -er off the infinitive: parler becomes parl-. Then add the ending for the person.
The endings are -e (je), -es (tu), -e (il, elle, on), -ons (nous), -ez (vous) and -ent (ils, elles). Careful: you cannot hear -e, -es and -ent. Je parle, tu parles, il parle and ils parlent sound exactly the same. Only -ons and -ez can be heard.
If the verb starts with a vowel or a silent h, je gets shorter: j'aime, j'écoute, j'habite.
Some verbs change a little to keep their sound. With -ger an e stays before -ons (nous mangeons), with -cer the c becomes ç (nous commençons). Acheter and préférer get an è before a silent ending (j'achète, je préfère), appeler and jeter double the consonant (j'appelle, je jette), and with envoyer or payer the y becomes i (j'envoie, je paie).
Stem (the infinitive without -er) + -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. With -ger: nous mangeons. With -cer: nous commençons. Je becomes j' before a vowel.
Examples to listen to
Je parle français et néerlandais.
Stem parl- + -e with je.
Tu regardes la télé ?
With tu always -es, even though you cannot hear the s.
Nous mangeons à la cantine.
Manger keeps an e before -ons, otherwise you would read mangons with a hard g.
Vous habitez à Mons ?
Vous + -ez, and you can hear this ending.
Mes parents travaillent à Bruxelles.
More than one person: -ent, which you do not pronounce.
J'achète du pain.
Acheter gets an è before a silent ending, and je becomes j'.
Worked example
Fill in: Le samedi, nous ___ (nager) à la piscine et mes cousins ___ (jouer) au tennis.
Nous takes -ons. Nager ends in -ger: the e stays, so nageons.
Mes cousins are more than one person, like ils: -ent, so jouent.
You hear jouent just like joue, but you write -ent.
- Answer
Le samedi, nous nageons à la piscine et mes cousins jouent au tennis.
Do it
Choose a level. You get a new exercise each time, checked straight away.
Pitfalls
Wrong: Nous mangons des frites.
Without the e you read a hard g, as in gondole. The e keeps the soft sound.
Right: Nous mangeons des frites.
Wrong: Ils parle français.
You cannot hear the difference, but with ils and elles you always write -ent.
Right: Ils parlent français.
Wrong: Vous parlé trop vite.
Parlez, parler and parlé sound the same. With vous it is always -ez.
Right: Vous parlez trop vite.
Wrong: Je aime le chocolat.
Before a vowel je gets shorter: j'aime. You write it joined, with an apostrophe.
Right: J'aime le chocolat.
In real life
- In a text from your pen friend in Lyon: Tu joues à quoi ce soir ?
- On a sign in a shop window in Brussels: Ici, on parle français, néerlandais et anglais.
- On a poster for a school party in Namur: On danse, on chante, on mange ensemble.
History
Verbs in -er come from Latin verbs in -are, such as cantare (to sing), which became chanter. Almost all new French verbs still end up in this group, such as cliquer, zapper and scanner.
At the table
Play Le dé des personnes. Roll a die: 1 is je, 2 tu, 3 il, 4 nous, 5 vous, 6 ils. Someone names a verb in -er, the person who rolled conjugates it. Write the tricky forms (mangeons, commençons) down together.
Something to do or talk about together, for parents and children. Mistakes are welcome.