Conjugating RE Verbs

Two weeks ago, we learned how to conjugate ER verbs in the present tense. Last week we learned how to conjugate IR verbs. This week it’s the last of the three main verb groups – RE verbs. RE verbs are the least common of the three regular verb groups, but they’re still important.

 Our pattern:

 

That’s it. Pretty simple, right? The second column is exactly like the second column in our ER verb pattern. Remember?

 And the first column is pretty simple too. Just remember – you drop the –re from the il/elle form and you add nothing.

 So, let’s take a common example verb:

 

If you know how to conjugate ER, IR, and RE verbs – you know a lot of the everyday (and a lot of the not-so-everyday) verbs.  See? Verb conjugation isn’t so tricky after all.

Conjugating IR Verbs

Last week we looked at conjugating the largest group of regular French verbs in this post about the basics of verb conjugation and -ER verbs. Today we'll take a quick look at conjugating the second most common group of regular verbs -IR verbs.

The pattern for -ir verbs is pretty simple, but the endings are a little longer than they are for -er verbs. It always makes me think a little of the spelling of Mississippi – M-I-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I!

-IR verb pattern, present tense:

So, to conjugate -ir verbs in the present tense, just remove the ending (-ir) from the infinitive and add the appropriate conjugated ending. Let's take a common -ir verb as an example.

Pretty simple, right? And now you know how to conjugate the two biggest groups of French verbs in the present tense! Not bad!

While they follow this rule, regular -ir verbs which already have an "s" in them tend to throw off students. Verbs like "choisir".

Don't drop the 's' from the stem! Even in the second column.