The French Present Tense

The French present tense, as in other languages, is the most basic verb tense, and the one that is easiest to start with when learning French. It is also the most useful for communicating basic concepts or having simple conversations.

Understanding the French Present Tense

Just like in English, the subject of a sentence changes the verb’s ending in present tense. You do it all the time, probably without thinking about it. For example:

“I talk”, but “she talks”

“You speak”, but “he speaks”

Learning the verb ending is much simpler in English, though, because for regular verbs in the present tense there are only two endings possible. The only ending that is different from the others is third person singular, which adds an “s” to the end of the verb. For example, with “to swim”:

I swim	we swim
you swim	you swim
he swims	they swim

In French, there are a few more endings to be aware of, but they usually follow set patterns, and it should not be that difficult to learn the patterns (though there are more variations to memorize).

On this website and in most French learning textbooks, verb conjugations are organized in a simple chart like this:

	singular	plural
first person	je* (I)	nous (we)
second person	tu (you)	vous (you)**
third person	il/elle (he/she/it)	ils/elles (they)

This chart indicates which subject pronoun goes with each form of the verb. Once you have this order memorized, it will be easy to learn new verb conjugations with this chart.

Note that you do not capitalize je, unlike “I” in English. Also, vous is also used as a formal “you”, as to a stranger or superior, in addition to a plural “you.”

In French, “regular” verbs are those that follow patterns. In most cases, regular verbs will involve starting with the infinitive form. Learning the pattern means that you can learn all the conjugations of all the verbs in each pattern. The most common is the –er pattern. We’ll also discuss the -ir and -re verb patterns in this post.

Present Tense for Regular -er Verbs

parler (“to speak”)
je parle	nous parlons
tu parles	vous parlez
il/elle parle	ils/elles parlent

Note the highlighted cells (what some French courses teach as “the boot” because of the “L” shape it makes on the chart) in –er verbs. They are all pronounced the same way, and their endings are all silent, despite the differences in the spelling.

The last sound you hear for the “boot” conjugations in parler, for instance, is the l. Only nous parlons (pahr-LON) and vous parlez (pahr-LAY) are pronounced differently, with endings you can hear.

The verbs that end in -er are the most common pattern of French verbs, but there are two other major verb patterns: -ir and -re verbs.

Present tense for Regular -ir Verbs

choisir (“to choose”)
je choisis	nous choisissons
tu choisis	vous choisissez
il/elle choisit	ils/elles choisissent

Though the singular side of the chart just gets an -is or -it ending, things get a little weird on the plural side of the chart. You’ll add an -iss + the regular -er ending, creating –issons, –issez and –issent in the nous, vous and ils forms. With the s doubled on the plural side of the conjugation chart, you do pronounce the iss. You still won’t pronounce the -ent at the very end of the ils/elles conjugation, because -ent is never pronounced.

On the singular side, you won’t pronounce the final s or t, meaning you pronounce all three forms the same way (shwah-ZEE). On the plural side, both parts of the -issons and –issez ending are pronounced (ee-SON) and (ee-SAY), and choisissent is pronounced “shwah-SEESE”)

Examples of other -ir verbs include finir, partir, venir, and courir. Read more about conjugating -ir verbs here.

Present Tense for Regular -re Verbs

mettre (“to put”)
je mets	nous mettons
tu mets	vous mettez
il/elle met	ils/elles mettent

For -re verbs, the singular side, is, again, all pronounced the same way. You don’t pronounce the –s on the end of the first-person and second-person forms.

Also notice the doubling of the last consonant (the tt‘s, for mettre) before the -re ending on the right-hand side of the chart. This doubling means you pronounce the last consonant of the ils/elles conjugation (but, again, never the -ent ending).

Examples of other -re verbs include prendre, connaître, mourir, and offrir. Check out our post on conjugating -re verbs here.

Important Irregular Verbs in French Present Tense

Though many more verbs in French follow a logical pattern than in English, some common verbs have evolved over time to have irregular verb conjugations that you’ll just have to memorize. The four most important to know are être (“to be”) and avoir (“to have”), followed by aller (“to go”) and faire (“to make or do”).

être (“to be”)
je suis	nous sommes
tu es	vous êtes
il/elle est	ils/elles sont

avoir (“to have”)
j‘ai	nous avons
tu as	vous avez
il/elle a	ils/elles ont

aller (“to go”)
je vais	nous allons
tu vas	vous allez
il/elle va	ils/elles vont

faire (“to make or do”)
je fais	nous faisons
tu fais	vous faîtes
il/elle fait	ils/elles font

Read our full post on these “core four” verbs here.

Other French Present Tense Verb Patterns

Other verb patterns consist of small groups of verbs conjugated in the same way, so it’s easiest to memorize each group together rather than as separate conjugations.

Dormir/Servir/Sortir

For these verbs, you add back the final consonant in the plural forms before tacking on the normal -ons, -ez, -ent endings.

dormir (“to sleep”)
je dors	nous dormons
tu dors	vous dormez
il/elle dort	ils/elles dorment

Pouvoir/Vouloir

These verbs get an unusual eu form for the “boot”. Je and tu will end in –eux, il/elle end in -eut, and ils/elles takes the eu + the final consonant + –ent.

The change for the plural form happens because nous + the hypothetical “peuxons” wouldn’t be a strong enough sound, with that soft eu and the “z” sound that the x makes, to support the right-hand side verb endings. (We discuss this issue a little more in the next section).

As for where the –eu for the boot forms comes from in the first place, we have no idea. You’ll just have to memorize it.

pouvoir
je peux	nous pouvons
tu peux	vous pouvez
il/elle peut	ils/elles peuvent

Why Do Irregular Verb Patterns Happen?

First, sometimes French verbs (like the core four verbs) are irregular just because that’s what tends to happen to the most commonly used verbs in any language over the centuries.

But in other cases, pattern deviations happen for the nous and vous forms because the final sound when pronounced would be too soft and insubstantial if the ending pattern didn’t adapt. In French, the “sound” of a word matters much more than in English, and based on French pronunciation expectations, plural forms need a strong consonant to support the additional -ez and –ons syllables. For example, just the r alone in nous  + the hypothetical conjugation “dorons” isn’t a strong enough sound to support that -ons ending. So the “m” that we dropped on the singular side reemerges on the plural side to provide support.

Next Steps

Got present tense conjugation figured out for all regular verbs? You might be ready to explore the various French past tenses and when to use each form.