French conjugation


French conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a French verb from its principal parts by inflection. French verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations with the following grouping:
The first two groups follow a regular conjugation, whereas the third group follows an irregular one. The third group is considered a closed-class conjugation form, meaning that most new verbs introduced to the French language are of the first group, with the remaining ones being of the second group.
The verb aller is the only verb ending in -er belonging to the third group.

Moods and tenses

There are seven different moods in French conjugation: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative, infinitive, participle, and gerund. The infinitive, participle, and gerundive are not verbal moods.
Tenses are described under the mood to which they belong, and they are grouped as follows. Other tenses are constructed through the use of an auxiliary verb:
There are two auxiliary verbs in French: avoir and être, used to conjugate compound tenses according to these rules:
Compound tenses are conjugated with an auxiliary followed by the past participle, ex: j'ai fait, je suis tombé. When être is used, the participle is inflected according to the gender and number of the subject. The participle is inflected with the use of the verb avoir according to the direct object, but only if the direct object precedes the participle, ex:
As stand-alone verbs, the conjugation of the two auxiliaries is listed in the table below:

''Avoir''

This verb has different stems for different tenses. These are imperfect av- ; present subjunctive ai- ; future and conditional aur- ; simple past and past subjunctive e-. Although the stem changes, the inflections of these tenses are as a regular -oir verb.
In the present, not only are there stem changes, but the inflections are irregular as well:
* Notice that the imperative form uses the subjunctive conjugation.
Non-finite forms:
Auxiliary verb: avoir

''Être''

This verb has different stems for different tenses. These are all pronounced differently: imperfect ét- ; present subjunctive soi- ; future and conditional ser- ; simple past and past subjunctive in f-. The inflections of these tenses are as a regular -oir verb. For example, subjunctive soyons, soyez is pronounced with the y sound of other -re and -oir verbs.
In the simple present, not only are there stem changes, but the inflections are irregular as well:
* The imperative form uses the subjunctive conjugation.
The non-finite forms use the stem êt- /ét- :
Auxiliary verb: avoir

First-group verbs (''-er'' verbs)

French verbs ending in -er, which constitute the largest class, inflect somewhat differently from other verbs. Between the stem and the inflectional endings that are common across most verbs, there may be a vowel, which in the case of the -er verbs is a silent -e-, -é or -ai , and -a- . In addition, the orthographic -t found in the -ir and -re verbs in the singular of the simple present and past is not found in this conjugation, so that the final consonants are -Ø, -s, -Ø rather than -s, -s, -t.

''Parler''

Non-finite forms:
Auxiliary verb: avoir
Exceptional contexts:
Exceptional verbs:
The -ir verbs differ from the -er verbs in the following points:
Non-finite forms:
Auxiliary verb: avoir

Third group

The third group involves mostly verbs that end in -re and a few -ir verbs and the verb aller. There are numerous irregularities in this group with several different conjugation paradigms, for example several verbs that end in -ire have similar endings. The verb perdre and its endings are frequently presented as an example for the third group conjugations. See the irregular verb section for more details.

''perdre''

Non-finite forms:
Auxiliary verb: avoir

Irregular verbs and their paradigms

First sub-conjugation: Verbs with seven principal parts

Most irregular French verbs can be described with seven principal parts. In reality, few if any verbs have separate stems for all seven parts; instead, they tend to "inherit" the same stem as another part. Note that the endings for these verbs are basically the same as for regular -ir verbs; in fact, regular -ir verbs can be fit into this scheme by treating the -iss- variants as different principal parts.
Principal partHow to get the stem"Inherited" value of stem
infinitiveRemove ending -er, -ir, -oir, -re—
First singular present indicativeRemove ending -s, -eInfinitive stem
First plural present indicativeRemove ending -onsInfinitive stem
Third plural present indicativeRemove ending -entFirst plural present stem
futureRemove ending -aiFull infinitive stem
past participleFull wordInfinitive stem, plus -i
simple pastRemove ending -s, -aiPast participle

The following table shows how the paradigm of an irregular verb is constructed from its principal parts. Note that a few verbs construct the present indicative differently.
1 The -t is regularly dropped when directly following a d or t.
Non-finite forms:
The following table gives principal parts for a number of irregular verbs. There are a number of fair-sized groups of verbs that are conjugated alike; these are listed first. There are some additional irregularities in the present indicative, which are listed below. Nearly all irregularities affect the singular, and are purely issues of spelling.
1 Only in Quebec French
2 The ending -t is regularly dropped when directly following a d or t.
3 Alternation of "-ai-" and -oi- before consonant or unstressed e, "-ay-" and -oy- before other vowels is automatic in all verbs.
The following table shows an example paradigm of one of these verbs, recevoir "to receive".
Non-finite forms:
Nine verbs also have an irregular subjunctive stem, used at least for the singular and third plural of the present subjunctive. These verbs can be said to have 11 principal parts, because the subjunctive stem may or may not be used for the first and second plural present subjunctive, the imperative and/or the present participle, in ways that vary from verb to verb.
The following table shows how the paradigm of an 11-principal-part irregular verb is constructed from its principal parts. Note that these verbs are generally the most irregular verbs in French, and many of them construct the present indicative in an idiosyncratic fashion. The verb aller also constructs its past participle and simple past differently, according to the endings for -er verbs.
Non-finite forms:
The following table gives the principal parts for the 11-principal-part verbs.

''Aller''

The verb aller means "to go" and is sufficiently irregular that it merits listing its conjugation in full. It is the only verb with the first group ending "er" to have an irregular conjugation. It belongs to none of the three sections of the third group, and is often categorized on its own.
The verb has different stems for different tenses. These are all pronounced differently: past all- ; present subjunctive aill- ; conditional and future ir-. The inflections of these tenses are completely regular, and pronounced as in any other -er verb. However, in the simple present, not only are there stem changes, but the inflections are irregular as well:
The non-finite forms are all based on all- :
Auxiliary verb: être
1 In Classical French and even in certain dialects je vas is used.

Inflectional endings of the three verb groups

1. In an interrogative sentence, the final e is written é or è, and is pronounced as an open è. Additionally, the e in je becomes silent. For example: je marche , marchè-je?
2. Only in je/tu peux, je/tu veux, and je/tu vaux.
. Verbs in -dre have a final d for the 3rd singular person, except for those ending in -indre and -soudre which take a final t. The verbs vaincre and convaincre are conjugated as vainc and convainc, respectively, in 3rd singular person.
3. The only verbs having this ending are: assaillir, couvrir, cueillir, défaillir, offrir, ouvrir, souffrir, tressaillir, and in the imperative only, avoir, savoir, and vouloir.
4. Except for je vins, je tins, etc..., que je vinsse, que je tinsse, etc...