French 1 / Unit 5: School and -er Verbs
5.2 Regular -er Verbs
Notes
Most French verbs end in -er. To conjugate, remove -er from the infinitive to get the stem, then add the endings.
| Pronom | Endings | parler (to speak) |
|---|---|---|
| je | -e | parle |
| tu | -es | parles |
| il / elle / on | -e | parle |
| nous | -ons | parlons |
| vous | -ez | parlez |
| ils / elles | -ent | parlent |
- Common -er verbs: parler (speak), étudier (study), aimer (like, love), chanter (sing), danser (dance), écouter (listen), regarder (watch), travailler (work), habiter (live), manger (eat).
- The endings -e, -es, -ent are silent, so il parle and ils parlent sound the same.
- Before a vowel or silent h, je becomes j': j'étudie, j'habite.
- French has one present tense for "I speak", "I am speaking" and "I do speak": Je parle.
Practice
Complete: « Nous ___ français en classe. » (parler)
Nous takes the ending -ons.
Complete: « Mes amis ___ la musique. » (écouter)
Ils/elles takes -ent.
Which sentence is correct?
Je becomes j' before a vowel and the je form ends in -e (no s).
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