A1
-er verbs in the present
How regular French -er verbs conjugate in the present, why several forms are pronounced the same, and the small spelling changes some stems need.
Around ninety per cent of French verbs end in -er, and they all conjugate the same way. Drop the -er and add the endings.
| je parle | I speak |
| tu parles | you speak |
| il / elle parle | he / she speaks |
| nous parlons | we speak |
| vous parlez | you speak |
| ils / elles parlent | they speak |
Je parle un peu français.
I speak a little French
I speak a little French.
Four of the six sound the same
Parle, parles, parle and parlent are pronounced identically — the endings are silent. Only parlons and parlez differ audibly.
This means French verbs carry far less information in speech than their spelling suggests, and the subject pronoun is doing the work. It also means the -ent ending is silent, which is worth stating outright because it looks so much like it should be sounded.
Ils habitent à Lyon.
they live in Lyon
They live in Lyon.
Habitent is said abit.
One present tense, three English ones
Je parle covers I speak, I am speaking and I do speak. French has no separate progressive, and building one is the most common English-speaker mistake.
Je suis parlant français.
Je parle français.
French has no -ing present. Je parle already means I am speaking. If the ongoing sense must be explicit, the phrase is je suis en train de parler.
Small spelling changes
Some stems adjust to keep their sound.
| manger → nous mangeons | keeps the soft g |
| commencer → nous commençons | keeps the soft c |
| acheter → j’achète | accent on the stressed vowel |
| appeler → j’appelle | doubles the l |
These are spelling repairs rather than irregularities. The sound is regular; the orthography is catching up with it.