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29.1: Regular Verbs

  • Page ID
    152101
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    Regular Verbs

    REGULAR -er VERBS: (Model: parler)

    Past Participle parlé j'ai parlé, ...
    Present Participle parlant  

     

    Present Indicative je parle nous parlons
    tu parles vous parlez
    il/elle/on parle elles/ils parlent

     

    Imperfect je parlais, ... (-ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient)
    Future je parlerai, ... (-as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont)
    Conditional je parlerais, ... (same as Imperfect endings)

     

    Present Subjunctive je parle nous parlions
    tu parles vous parliez
    il/elle/on parle elles/ils parlent

     

    Past Definite je parlai nous parlâmes
    tu parlas vous parlâtes
    il/elle parla elles/ils parlèrent

     

    Imperative parle(s)*, parlons, parlez

    * All -er verbs, regular or irregular, follow the same pattern for the tu-form of the imperative: no -s except when the following word begins with a vowel sound.

    Note: There are some spelling conventions that involve -er verbs. They appear complex but make sense once you see that the variations directly reflect the way (1) the various forms of the verb change in sound as the stress changes or (2) the spelling is required to indicate the "soft" g or c in front of standard endings that begin with "hard" vowels.

    1. Verb like répéter, appeler, and espérer undergo a spelling change when the stress passes from the final position (stress is on the final position in the infinitive, appeler, and in the 1st and 2nd plural, present indicative, appelons, appelez) to the next-to-last position (as in all other present tense forms: j'appelle, tu appelles, il appelle, elles appellent). As you see from the examples, for appeler, the l is doubled; for some other verbs, the e in next-to-last position takes a grave accent: espérer becomes j'espère.

    2. Verbs like changer and placer add an -e- or place a cedilla under the c when the g or c are followed by an a, o, u (so called "hard" vowels). Thus, we have changeons and plaçons.

    REGULAR -ir VERBS: (Model: finir)

    Past Participle fini j'ai fini, ...
    Present Participle finissant  

     

    Present Indicative je vends nous vendons
    tu vends vous vendez
    il/elle vend elles/ils vendent

     

    Imperfect je vendais, ...
    Future je vendrai, ...
    Conditional je vendrais, ...

     

    Present Subjunctive je vende nous vendions
    tu vendes vous vendiez
    elle/il vende ils/elles vendent

     

    Past Definite je vendis nous vendîmes
    tu vendis vous vendîtes
    il/elle vendit elles/ils vendirent

     

    Imperative vends, vendons, vendez

    29.1: Regular Verbs is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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