French verbs do most of the heavy lifting in any sentence. A single conjugated form tells you who is acting, when it happened, how the speaker frames it (as fact, wish, hypothesis, or order), and — once you reach compound tenses — how it relates to other events on the timeline. That packed information is the reason French sentences can feel dense to English speakers: the verb alone carries what English usually distributes across modal verbs, auxiliaries, and adverbs.
This page is your map. It does not teach you a single conjugation in detail; instead, it shows you the architecture of the system and points you to the dedicated pages where each piece is unpacked. Read it once before you dive in, and come back whenever you feel lost in the forest.
Three traditional groups
Every French verb belongs to one of three families, defined by the ending of the infinitive and by how the verb behaves under conjugation. French grammarians call these the groupes.
| Group | Infinitive ending | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1er groupe | -er | parler | to speak |
| 2e groupe | -ir (with -iss-) | finir | to finish |
| 3e groupe | -ir (no -iss-) / -re / irregular | partir, prendre, aller | to leave, to take, to go |
The 1er groupe (-er) accounts for roughly 90% of French verbs and is the only fully productive class — when French borrows a verb from English (googler, tweeter, scroller, liker) or coins one from a noun (texto → textoter), it joins the first group. Within this enormous class, only a single verb is irregular: aller (to go).
The 2e groupe is a smaller, fully regular set of about 300 verbs that share one defining feature: an -iss- infix in the plural of the present and throughout the imperfect. Finir, choisir, réussir, grandir — all behave alike. You can spot them by the shape nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent.
The 3e groupe is a heterogeneous catch-all of verbs that follow none of the two regular templates. It contains the highest-frequency verbs in the language (être, avoir, aller, faire, dire, prendre, mettre, voir, savoir, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, venir, tenir), plus all -re verbs (vendre, attendre, comprendre) and the -ir verbs that lack -iss- (partir, sortir, dormir, courir, ouvrir). Idiosyncrasy here is the rule, not the exception.
Je parle français depuis cinq ans.
I have been speaking French for five years.
Nous finissons toujours nos devoirs avant le dîner.
We always finish our homework before dinner.
Elle prend le métro tous les matins à huit heures.
She takes the metro every morning at eight.
For the full tour, see The Three Conjugation Groups.
Subject pronouns are mandatory
This is the single biggest difference between French and its Romance siblings. Spanish and Italian routinely drop subject pronouns (Hablo español, Parlo italiano). French does not. Every finite verb in a declarative sentence requires a subject pronoun in front of it.
Je parle français.
I speak French.
Tu travailles ce soir ?
Are you working tonight?
On va au cinéma demain.
We're going to the cinema tomorrow.
The reason is phonological. In the present indicative of parler, the forms parle (1sg), parles (2sg), parle (3sg), and parlent (3pl) are all pronounced exactly the same: /paʁl/. Without a subject pronoun, a listener has no way to recover who is speaking. The pronoun does the work that the ending alone cannot do.
The full set is je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles, with on doing extra work as a colloquial replacement for nous (it is far more common than nous in spoken French). For the details — including the tu/vous split and the rise of on — see Subject Pronouns Are Mandatory.
Four finite moods
Where English uses modal verbs (would, might, should, may) to mark the speaker's stance, French inflects the verb itself. There are four finite moods.
- Indicatif is the mood of facts and assertions — the workhorse, where most of what you say lives. Je parle français.
- Subjonctif is the mood of subjective stance: doubt, desire, emotion, judgment. It appears in subordinate clauses introduced by que, after triggers like il faut que, je veux que, bien que, avant que, pour que. Je veux que tu viennes.
- Conditionnel is the mood of hypotheticals, polite requests, and reported claims. Je voudrais un café. Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais.
- Impératif is the mood of direct commands, with three forms only — tu, nous, vous. Parle ! Parlons ! Parlez !
The French subjonctif is alive and productive in modern speech in a way that the English subjunctive is not. Italian and Spanish learners often expect French to be retreating in this area; it is not. After il faut que and je veux que, an educated French speaker will use the subjonctif every time, in conversation as readily as in writing.
Je sais qu'il vient demain.
I know he's coming tomorrow. (Indicative — I'm asserting it as fact.)
Je veux qu'il vienne demain.
I want him to come tomorrow. (Subjunctive — I'm expressing a wish, not a fact.)
Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.
I'd like a coffee, please. (Conditional — polite request.)
Viens à neuf heures !
Come at nine o'clock! (Imperative — direct command.)
For the full tour, see Moods in French.
Simple tenses and compound tenses
Within each finite mood, tenses come in two flavours.
- Simple tenses — one conjugated word: je parle, je parlais, je parlerai, que je parle.
- Compound tenses — an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus the past participle of the main verb: j'ai parlé, j'avais parlé, j'aurai parlé, que j'aie parlé.
Every compound tense is anchored to a corresponding simple tense — its auxiliary is in that simple tense. J'ai parlé (passé composé) uses avoir in the present; j'avais parlé (plus-que-parfait) uses avoir in the imperfect; j'aurai parlé (futur antérieur) uses avoir in the future. Once you internalize this pattern, the whole compound system collapses to a single rule: take the auxiliary at the desired simple tense, add the past participle.
The conversational past tenses are the passé composé (j'ai parlé) for completed events and the imparfait (je parlais) for habits, descriptions, and ongoing background. The interplay between them is one of the central skills in spoken French. Four other indicative tenses — the passé simple (je parlai), the passé antérieur (j'eus parlé), and their subjunctive counterparts — are restricted to formal written French and are recognition-only for most learners.
Hier soir, j'ai mangé une pizza délicieuse.
Last night I ate a delicious pizza. (Passé composé — completed event.)
Quand j'étais petit, j'allais à la mer chaque été.
When I was little, I used to go to the sea every summer. (Imparfait — habit / description.)
For the full inventory and the recognition-vs-production triage, see Tenses in French.
The two auxiliaries: avoir and être
Every compound tense is built with one of two auxiliaries. The choice is not random and it is not optional.
- Avoir is the default. Most verbs — including all transitive verbs — take avoir. J'ai mangé une pomme. Elle a vu le film. Nous avons compris.
- Être takes a closed list of about seventeen intransitive verbs of motion or change of state — sometimes called the maison d'être (aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, rester, tomber, naître, mourir, retourner, devenir, passer, rentrer, revenir) — plus all reflexive (pronominal) verbs.
When a verb takes être, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject: il est parti, elle est partie, ils sont partis, elles sont parties. With avoir, the participle stays invariable — unless a direct object precedes the verb, in which case the participle agrees with that object. This is the most distinctively French complication in the verb system.
Marc a mangé toute la tarte.
Marc ate the whole tart. (avoir — no agreement.)
Marie est partie tôt ce matin.
Marie left early this morning. (être — agreement: partie because the subject is feminine.)
Nous nous sommes amusés hier soir.
We had a great time last night. (Reflexive — être with subject agreement.)
For the full mechanics, see Choosing the Auxiliary.
Three things that make French verbs hard
Be honest with yourself about what is going to be difficult. French verbs throw three big challenges at English speakers, and the sooner you face them, the better.
1. The auxiliary choice and participle agreement
This is the headline difficulty. Avoir or être? And once you have chosen être, does the participle agree? Elle est arrivée hier (agreement). Elle a vu le film (no agreement). Le film qu'elle a vu (agreement: vu refers back to le film, which precedes the verb). The rules are learnable, but they require sustained attention. See Participle Agreement: Overview.
2. The imparfait / passé composé contrast
French divides the past into two tenses that English collapses into one. I ate can be j'ai mangé (a single event) or je mangeais (a recurring habit), and the choice depends on how the speaker frames the action — not on translation rules. English speakers tend to overuse the passé composé and underuse the imparfait, with the result that their French sounds choppy. The contrast is not subtle once you see it; before that, it is invisible.
Je mangeais souvent au restaurant à cette époque.
I often ate out in restaurants in those days. (Imparfait — habit, no fixed endpoint.)
Hier, j'ai mangé au restaurant avec mes parents.
Yesterday, I ate at the restaurant with my parents. (Passé composé — single completed event.)
3. The productive subjunctive
English speakers reach French expecting the subjunctive to be a relic, the way if I were you is in their own language. They are wrong. Il faut que tu viennes, je veux que tu fasses ça, bien qu'il soit fatigué — these are unremarkable everyday utterances, and using the indicative in their place (il faut que tu viens, je veux que tu fais) sounds like a foreigner mistake. The subjonctif présent is genuinely productive; learn its triggers early.
Il faut que tu finisses tes devoirs avant de sortir.
You have to finish your homework before going out.
Je suis content que tu sois là.
I'm glad you're here.
A small but central lexicon
Five verbs do an enormous amount of work in French and deserve to be memorized first, before anything else: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), faire (to do/make), and venir (to come). Together they cover the auxiliaries, the immediate future (aller + infinitive: je vais partir), the recent past (venir de + infinitive: je viens d'arriver), and dozens of fixed expressions. Master their present forms and you have the spine of a thousand French sentences.
Je vais partir dans cinq minutes.
I'm going to leave in five minutes. (Futur proche.)
Elle vient d'arriver à la gare.
She has just arrived at the station. (Passé récent.)
Qu'est-ce que tu fais ce week-end ?
What are you doing this weekend?
Common mistakes
❌ Parle français.
Wrong as a statement: would be misread as the imperative 'Speak French!'. French requires a subject pronoun.
✅ Je parle français.
I speak French.
❌ J'ai allé au cinéma hier.
Wrong: aller takes être, not avoir.
✅ Je suis allé au cinéma hier.
I went to the cinema yesterday.
❌ Il faut que tu viens à la réunion.
Wrong in any register: il faut que triggers the subjunctive.
✅ Il faut que tu viennes à la réunion.
You have to come to the meeting.
❌ Quand j'étais petit, j'ai mangé beaucoup de chocolat.
Wrong tense for a habit: a recurring childhood action requires the imparfait, not the passé composé.
✅ Quand j'étais petit, je mangeais beaucoup de chocolat.
When I was little, I used to eat a lot of chocolate.
❌ Marie est arrivé en retard.
Wrong: with être, the participle agrees with the subject. Marie is feminine, so it must be arrivée.
✅ Marie est arrivée en retard.
Marie arrived late.
Where to go next
Start with The Three Conjugation Groups to see how the verb families look. Then Subject Pronouns Are Mandatory to fix the most common transfer error. After that, the present indicative pages — beginning with être and avoir, then the regular -er verbs — will give you the lexicon you need to start speaking. Once the present is solid, move to the passé composé and the imparfait, and the conversation will start opening up.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- The Three Conjugation Groups: -er, -ir, -reA1 — How French verbs sort into the 1er, 2e, and 3e groupes — and why one group has 90% of the verbs and another is everything that doesn't fit.
- Subject Pronouns Are MandatoryA1 — Why French requires je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles in front of every finite verb — and the few cases where you don't.
- Moods in French: Indicatif, Subjonctif, Conditionnel, ImpératifA2 — How French uses four finite moods to express facts, doubts, hypotheticals, and commands — and why English speakers find the subjonctif unfamiliar.
- Tenses in French: A Complete MapA2 — Every French tense laid out by mood, with which ones are alive in everyday speech and which are reserved for literature.
- Choosing the auxiliary: avoir or êtreA2 — Almost every French compound tense uses avoir — but a small set of verbs takes être instead. The choice is determined by the verb, not the speaker, and getting it right is the foundation of every compound tense in French.
- Le Subjonctif: Overview of the French SubjunctiveB1 — The French subjunctive is alive and well — used in casual conversation, not just literary prose. The mood marks uncertainty, emotion, necessity, and desire, and learners need it from B1 onward to sound like an adult speaker.