verbs
verbs
verbs in French: A verb is the action word in a sentence. It can tell you what is happening, name an action, describe a feeling, or indicate a state of being.
In the English present tense, there are just two verb forms, or conjugations, depending on the subject. There’s one form for the third person singular, and another for all other subjects: I sing, you sing, we sing, they sing, but he sings and she sings. The verb to be is the only exception, with three conjugations: I am, you are, he is , we are, they are .
In contrast, French verbs have up to six conjugations – a different one for each, for example: chanter – je chante, tu chantes, il chante, nous chantons, vous chantez, ils chantent. The verb être – je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont
Categories of French verbs
Based on patterns in the conjugations, French verbs are divided into categories:
A. Regular verbs: There are three different sets of regular verbs:
Regular verbs within each set are all conjugated the same way in all of the tenses. Once you learn how to conjugate one regular verb in each category, you can conjugate the majority of French verbs.
B. Stem-changing verbs
These verbs take the regular -ER verb endings, but the stem of the conjugation may change, depending on the subject.
C. Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs end in -ER, -IR, or -RE, but don’t follow the regular verb patterns. Instead, their conjugations are unique or are limited to just a few verbs, so you must memorize each of the conjugations separately. The 10 most common French verbs are all irregular.
There are two types of verbs which may fall into any of the above categories, but also have an additional particularity:
1.Pronominal verbs: Pronominal verbs: including reflexive verbs, require reflexive pronouns.
2.Impersonal verbs: Impersonal verbs have just one conjugation: for the impersonal subject “it.”
Conjugation verbs