Être, avoir, aller, and faire are the four most essential verbs in French and almost certainly the first four you’ll learn. Two are passive (“to be” and “to have”) and two are active (“to go” and “to do/make”). Mastering these “core four” also unlocks the foundation of all two-part French past tenses, since they use être and avoir as auxiliary verbs.
For each of these four verbs, I also list where each one ranks in the Frequency Dictionary of French to provide further context on how frequently these verbs are used.
Conjugating the core four verbs
In many languages, the most commonly used verbs have developed irregular conjugations over the centuries, and French is no exception. You might recognize some patterns in their verb forms as compared to regular verbs, but none of them follow a completely predictable pattern, meaning you’ll have to learn each unique verb conjugation for these verbs.
How to Read the Conjugation Charts
The charts below are set up how verb conjugations are taught in many languages, including this website. They offer a quick and easy way to tell which type of subject or pronoun matches which verb conjugation. The three rows represent what “person” the tense is (1st person: I; 2nd person: you; 3rd person: others). The two columns represent whether the subject is singular (left) or plural (right).
The most important tense for you to learn first is the present tense, so the charts below all show the present tense conjugations.
1) Être (“to be”)
The most fundamental verb (#5 on the frequency list), not only is être useful in and of itself, it’s also used instead of avoir to form the past tense passé composé form with certain French verbs.
Être
| Être (Present Tense) | |
| je suis | nous sommes |
| tu es | vous êtes |
| il/elle/on est | ils/elles sont |
Pronunciation note
When you say vous êtes, the s in vous should be pronounced (with a “z” sound).
2) Avoir (“to Have”)
Avoir (#8) is useful to talk about ownership, but it’s also used in most sentences to form the passé composé and plus-que-parfait, in most cases.
Avoir
| Avoir (Present Tense) | |
| j’ai | nous avons |
| tu as | vous avez |
| il/elle/on a | ils/elles ont |
Pronunciation note
For the nous, vous, and ils/elles verb conjugations, you should be saying the final s (again, with a “z” sound) because the pronoun is in front of a verb that begins with a vowel.
Grammar note
When you want to use avoir with negation (saying that you don’t have something, for instance), what you don’t have switches from “a” or “an” something (un/une) to de (d’ in front of a vowel).
3) Faire (“to make or do”)
Faire (#25) and its conjugations are used in many French phrases, in addition to being a useful action verb to know.
Faire
| Faire (Present Tense) | |
| je fais | nous faisons |
| tu fais | vous faîtes |
| il/elle/on fait | ils/elles font |
Pronunciation note
The nous and vous forms have a pronunciation that differs from the standard pattern. The ai sound is not pronounced “ay” like in the other faire conjugations. Instead, faisons is pronounced “fuh-zohn,” and faîtes is pronounced “feht.”
4) Aller (“to go”)
Aller is the other main action verb to learn early on (#53). It’s also useful because you can use it in its conjugated form to make near future statements (the equivalent of the English “I am going to visit Switzerland”) in place of the actual French future tense.
Aller
| Aller (Present Tense) | |
| je vais | nous allons |
| tu vas | vous allez |
| il/elle/on va | ils/elles vont |
Pronunciation note
For both the nous and vous conjugations, you should be saying the final s as a “z” sound.
Grammar note
In French you go à (“to”) places. There are special rules if the place you’re going to begins with a definite article (le/la/les). If the destination is feminine (la), you say à la + [that place]. But if your destination begins with le, à + le becomes au. Similarly, à + les becomes aux.
Next Steps
Now that you’re familiar with these four essential French verbs, you’re ready to move on to the present tense. The goal from here is to get these conjugations out of your memory and into your instincts — the point where you produce je suis or nous avons without pausing to think about it. If you want to build that automaticity faster, an app like Mondly is well suited to drilling these forms through short daily practice sessions.
