Regular -er verbs – present tense
Parler: je parle, nous parlons…
About 90% of French verbs end in -er, and almost all of them follow the same pattern. Learn this one table and you can conjugate thousands of verbs: parler, aimer, habiter, travailler, regarder, écouter, jouer, manger…
How to conjugate
Take the infinitive, remove -er to get the stem (parl-), then add the ending:
| ending | parler (to speak) | |
|---|---|---|
| je | -e | je parle |
| tu | -es | tu parles |
| il / elle / on | -e | il parle |
| nous | -ons | nous parlons |
| vous | -ez | vous parlez |
| ils / elles | -ent | ils parlent |
- Je parle trois langues.I speak three languages.
- Tu regardes la télé ?Are you watching TV?
- Nous aimons le cinéma.We love the cinema.
- Vous travaillez où ?Where do you work?
- Ils jouent au foot.They're playing football.
Pronunciation: four forms sound the same
The endings -e, -es, -e, -ent are all silent, so je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent are pronounced identically: parl. Only nous parlons and vous parlez sound different.
The -ent of ils parlent is never pronounced. Saying "parl-ent" is one of the most common beginner mistakes.
Verbs starting with a vowel
Je becomes j', and nous, vous, ils, elles link with a z sound:
- J'aime, j'habite, j'écoute
- Nous‿aimons, ils‿habitent
Some -er verbs have small spelling changes: see Semi-regular -cer and -ger verbs and -eler and -eter verbs. The only truly irregular -er verb is aller: Aller (to go).
Practice
- Je _____ anglais. (parler)
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parle
- Tu _____ où ? (habiter)
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habites
- Nous _____ un film. (regarder)
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regardons
- Vous _____ beaucoup. (travailler)
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travaillez