Every French verb is assigned to one of three families — the groupes — based on the ending of its infinitive and on how it behaves under conjugation. The classification is more than a textbook tradition: it tells you, at a glance, how productive the family is, what its endings look like, and how much memorization the verb is going to demand from you. This page walks through all three groups, gives you a model verb for each, and shows you the present-tense conjugation side by side.
A piece of vocabulary first. In French grammar talk, groupe is the family; conjugaison is the act of conjugating. So a teacher will say un verbe du premier groupe (a first-group verb) or la conjugaison de finir au présent (the conjugation of finir in the present).
1er groupe: -er verbs
The first group is the giant of the system. It contains roughly 90% of all French verbs — most counts put it at over 6,000 — and it is the only group that is still productive. Whenever French acquires a new verb, whether by borrowing it from English or coining it from a noun, the result joins the 1er groupe.
The class is also remarkably regular. Every single -er verb in French follows the model verb parler in the present indicative — with one famous exception, the irregular aller (to go). That makes the first group the safest bet on any test: nine out of ten times, an unfamiliar verb is going to be a regular -er verb.
A handful of high-frequency members:
| Infinitive | Meaning |
|---|---|
| parler | to speak |
| manger | to eat |
| aimer | to like / love |
| habiter | to live (reside) |
| travailler | to work |
| regarder | to watch / look at |
| écouter | to listen to |
| chercher | to look for |
| trouver | to find |
| donner | to give |
| acheter | to buy |
| jouer | to play |
J'aime beaucoup la cuisine italienne.
I really like Italian cooking.
Mon frère travaille dans une banque à Lyon.
My brother works in a bank in Lyon.
On cherche un appartement dans le quartier depuis trois mois.
We've been looking for an apartment in the neighborhood for three months.
Sample present-tense conjugation: parler
Drop -er from the infinitive to find the stem (parl-), then add the endings: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent.
| Person | Conjugation | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | parle | /paʁl/ |
| tu | parles | /paʁl/ |
| il / elle / on | parle | /paʁl/ |
| nous | parlons | /paʁlɔ̃/ |
| vous | parlez | /paʁle/ |
| ils / elles | parlent | /paʁl/ |
Notice the central feature of the -er class: four of the six forms — parle, parles, parle, parlent — are pronounced identically. The endings are visible on the page but inaudible in speech. This is exactly why French requires a subject pronoun in front of every finite verb (see Subject Pronouns Are Mandatory). Without je, tu, il, ils, the listener would have no way to tell who is speaking.
For the full conjugation page with examples, see Regular -er Verbs.
2e groupe: -ir verbs with -iss-
The second group is the small, well-behaved middle child of the family. It contains around 300 verbs, all of them regular, all of them recognizable by one defining feature: the -iss- infix that surfaces in the plural of the present, throughout the imperfect, and in the present participle.
This is the group where, once you know the model, you really do know all 300 verbs. There are no exceptions inside the class.
The signature member is finir (to finish):
| Infinitive | Meaning |
|---|---|
| finir | to finish |
| choisir | to choose |
| réussir | to succeed |
| grandir | to grow up |
| vieillir | to grow old |
| maigrir | to lose weight |
| rougir | to blush |
| obéir | to obey |
| guérir | to heal / cure |
| remplir | to fill |
| punir | to punish |
| bâtir | to build |
Je finis toujours mon assiette, c'est plus fort que moi.
I always finish my plate — I just can't help it.
Tu choisis le rouge ou le blanc avec le poisson ?
Are you having red or white with the fish?
Les enfants grandissent tellement vite à cet âge.
Kids grow up so fast at this age.
A useful pattern emerges if you look at the meanings: many 2e-groupe verbs describe a process or a change of state — grandir (grow up), vieillir (grow old), maigrir (lose weight), rougir (blush), jaunir (turn yellow), blanchir (turn white). A surprising number derive transparently from adjectives: grand → grandir, vieux → vieillir, rouge → rougir, jaune → jaunir, blanc → blanchir. Spotting that -ir is being used as a verbalizer of adjectives helps you recognize new members of the class on first sight.
Sample present-tense conjugation: finir
Drop -ir to find the stem (fin-), then add the endings: -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent.
| Person | Conjugation | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | finis | /fini/ |
| tu | finis | /fini/ |
| il / elle / on | finit | /fini/ |
| nous | finissons | /finisɔ̃/ |
| vous | finissez | /finise/ |
| ils / elles | finissent | /finis/ |
The -iss- infix appears in nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent and stays through the imperfect (je finissais, tu finissais...) and the present participle (finissant). It does not appear in the simple future or the conditional, where the stem returns to finir- (je finirai, je finirais).
For more, see Regular -ir (-iss-) Verbs.
3e groupe: everything else
The third group is the linguistic equivalent of a junk drawer. It contains everything that is neither a regular -er verb nor a regular -ir verb with -iss-. That includes:
- Irregular -ir verbs without -iss-: partir, sortir, dormir, courir, mourir, ouvrir, offrir, cueillir, venir, tenir, sentir, servir, mentir.
- All -re verbs: prendre, mettre, vendre, attendre, comprendre, descendre, perdre, répondre, rendre, vivre, suivre, écrire, lire, dire, faire, être, conduire, plaire, croire, boire.
- A handful of -oir verbs: voir, savoir, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, recevoir, apercevoir, falloir, valoir, asseoir, pleuvoir.
- The irregular -er verb aller — yes, traditionally classed in the 3e groupe despite its -er ending, because it conjugates like nothing else.
Most of these verbs are highly frequent. Être, avoir, aller, faire, dire, prendre, mettre, voir, savoir, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, venir, tenir — together they account for an enormous share of everyday French speech. The cruel irony of French is that the most common verbs are the ones you have to memorize one by one.
Je prends toujours le métro pour aller au travail.
I always take the metro to get to work.
Tu mets combien de sucre dans ton café ?
How much sugar do you put in your coffee?
Il faut que je parte avant huit heures.
I have to leave before eight.
Nous sortons souvent le vendredi soir.
We go out often on Friday evenings.
The good news is that 3e-groupe irregularity is not random. Verbs cluster into small families that share a single irregular template:
| Family | Members | Sample present |
|---|---|---|
| -prendre | prendre, apprendre, comprendre, surprendre, reprendre | je prends, tu prends, il prend, nous prenons, vous prenez, ils prennent |
| -mettre | mettre, permettre, promettre, admettre, soumettre | je mets, tu mets, il met, nous mettons, vous mettez, ils mettent |
| -venir / -tenir | venir, devenir, revenir, parvenir, tenir, retenir, soutenir | je viens, tu viens, il vient, nous venons, vous venez, ils viennent |
| -duire | conduire, traduire, produire, séduire, réduire, construire | je conduis, tu conduis, il conduit, nous conduisons, vous conduisez, ils conduisent |
| -aindre / -eindre / -oindre | craindre, peindre, joindre, atteindre, plaindre | je crains, tu crains, il craint, nous craignons, vous craignez, ils craignent |
| -ir (no -iss-) | partir, sortir, dormir, sentir, mentir, servir | je pars, tu pars, il part, nous partons, vous partez, ils partent |
If you learn one verb in each family, you have effectively learned the whole family. Comprendre conjugates exactly like prendre; retenir conjugates exactly like tenir; traduire exactly like conduire. This compresses the memorization burden enormously.
Sample present-tense conjugation: vendre
For -re verbs, drop -re to find the stem (vend-), then add: -s, -s, -, -ons, -ez, -ent. Note the third-person singular has no ending added — the stem already ends in -d, and that is enough.
| Person | Conjugation | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | vends | /vɑ̃/ |
| tu | vends | /vɑ̃/ |
| il / elle / on | vend | /vɑ̃/ |
| nous | vendons | /vɑ̃dɔ̃/ |
| vous | vendez | /vɑ̃de/ |
| ils / elles | vendent | /vɑ̃d/ |
The same template works for all regular -re verbs of this subtype: attendre, descendre, entendre, perdre, rendre, répondre.
For more, see Regular -re Verbs.
All three groups side by side
To see what makes each class distinct, here are the three model verbs in the present indicative, lined up so the patterns jump out:
| Person | parler (1er) | finir (2e) | vendre (3e, -re) | partir (3e, -ir no -iss-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | parle | finis | vends | pars |
| tu | parles | finis | vends | pars |
| il/elle/on | parle | finit | vend | part |
| nous | parlons | finissons | vendons | partons |
| vous | parlez | finissez | vendez | partez |
| ils/elles | parlent | finissent | vendent | partent |
Three observations to carry with you. First, the nous form ends in -ons in every group. That ending is universal across the entire system. Second, the vous form ends in -ez in every group. Those two endings are stable everywhere. Third, the only place where the partir type and the finir type diverge in the present is the plural: partons / partez / partent lacks -iss-, finissons / finissez / finissent has it. That single contrast is the most useful diagnostic for telling 2e-groupe from 3e-groupe -ir verbs.
How to tell which group an -ir verb belongs to
There is no fully reliable spelling rule. The 2e groupe historically absorbed verbs derived from adjectives and verbs of process or change (finir, choisir, réussir, grandir, rougir, vieillir, maigrir, blanchir), while the 3e-groupe -ir verbs are mostly inherited Latin forms (partir, sortir, dormir, venir, sentir, courir, mourir, ouvrir, offrir, cueillir). For learners, the realistic strategy is:
- Memorize the small irregular set. The 3e-groupe -ir verbs you will actually encounter are a closed list of about fifteen, plus their compounds. Once you have them, every other -ir verb is overwhelmingly likely to be 2e groupe.
- Listen for -iss-. If a French speaker says nous finissons, vous choisissez, ils réussissent, you are hearing the 2e groupe. If they say nous partons, vous sortez, ils dorment, you are hearing the 3e groupe.
Where new verbs go
When French borrows or coins a new verb, it joins the 1er groupe — full stop. Modern examples: googler, tweeter, scroller, liker, swiper, télécharger, uploader, streamer, taguer, dribbler, kiffer, ghoster, follower. None of them are -ir or -re verbs; the productive ending is always -er.
This means the -er class is going to keep growing, the -ir/-iss- class is essentially closed (the last new members entered French centuries ago), and the 3e groupe is closed entirely. From a learner's perspective, this is excellent news: the bulk of the open vocabulary is fully regular. See Which Conjugation New Verbs Join.
Je scrolle sur mon téléphone trop souvent le soir.
I scroll on my phone too often in the evening.
On a googlé l'adresse avant de partir.
We googled the address before leaving.
Common mistakes
❌ Nous finons à six heures.
Wrong: finir is a 2e-groupe verb, so the plural takes -iss-. The nous form is finissons, not finons.
✅ Nous finissons à six heures.
We finish at six.
❌ Vous partissez à quelle heure ?
Wrong: partir is a 3e-groupe -ir verb without -iss-. The vous form is partez.
✅ Vous partez à quelle heure ?
What time are you leaving?
❌ Je googler un restaurant pour ce soir.
Wrong: the verb has not been conjugated. Googler is a regular -er verb, so the je form is googl(e). Standard French would prefer 'je cherche', but if you use googler, conjugate it.
✅ Je google un restaurant pour ce soir.
I'm googling a restaurant for tonight. (Informal but standard 1er-groupe conjugation.)
❌ Tu prendre le bus tous les jours ?
Wrong: the verb is in the infinitive. Prendre is a 3e-groupe verb; the tu form is prends.
✅ Tu prends le bus tous les jours ?
Do you take the bus every day?
❌ Ils vendrent leur voiture le mois prochain.
Wrong: confusion of tenses. The present 3pl of vendre is vendent. Vendront would be the future ('they will sell').
✅ Ils vendent leur voiture le mois prochain.
They're selling their car next month.
Where to go next
Once you can identify a verb's group on sight, move into the present indicative pages for each: Regular -er Verbs, Regular -ir (-iss-) Verbs, and Regular -re Verbs. For the 3e-groupe irregulars, take them in order of frequency — être, avoir, aller, faire, prendre, mettre, voir, dire — using the per-verb pages in the verb reference. The patterns you learn here recur throughout the system: the imperfect, the future, the subjunctive, and the conditional all build on these same three classes.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- The French Verb System: OverviewA1 — A high-level map of French verbs: three traditional conjugation groups, four finite moods, and the auxiliary system that builds every compound tense.
- Regular vs Irregular VerbsA1 — What 'regular' really means in French verb conjugation, and why predictable spelling shifts in -er verbs are not the same as true irregularity.
- Le Présent: Verbes Réguliers en -erA1 — The full paradigm for regular 1er-groupe verbs in the present indicative — endings -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent, the four-way homophony of singular and ils forms, and the high-frequency verbs you need first.
- Le Présent: Verbes en -ir (2e groupe, -iss-)A1 — How to conjugate the 2e-groupe -ir verbs in the present indicative — finir, choisir, réussir, and the rest of the well-behaved family with the telltale -iss- infix in the plural.
- Le Présent: Verbes Réguliers en -reA1 — How to conjugate the regular -re verbs in the present indicative — vendre, attendre, entendre, and the d-stem family that follows the cleanest pattern in the 3e groupe.
- Which Conjugation New Verbs JoinB1 — Why modern French overwhelmingly assigns new verbs (googler, scroller, ghoster, optimiser) to the 1er groupe — and what this tells you about the architecture of French verb classes.