Learn French: Les invités découvrent la surprise. - The guests discover the surprise.

The verb découvrir (to discover) belongs to a special group of -ir verbs that are conjugated exactly like regular -er verbs in the present tense. Just like ouvrir (to open) and offrir (to offer), you drop the -ir and add the normal -er endings. For a plural subject like Les invités (they), the ending is -ent.

Do I pronounce the -ent at the end of découvrent?

No, you don't. A very common trap in French is that the -ent ending for the 'they' form of verbs is completely silent. You just pronounce the stem, sounding roughly like 'day-koovr'.

Should I make a liaison between Les and invités?

Yes! Because Les ends in an 's' and invités starts with a vowel, you link them together. It is pronounced with a 'z' sound bridging the two words: 'lay-zahn-vee-tay'.

Is découvrir related to the verb ouvrir from this lesson?

Yes, it is! Découvrir literally means 'to un-cover' or 'to discover'. Any verb that has ouvrir inside it, like découvrir or couvrir (to cover), follows the exact same conjugation rules as ouvrir.