French 2: The Present Tense

Say these four out loud: je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent. ▶ Four spellings, one sound. The endings -e, -es and -ent are silent, so in speech a French -er verb has only three present forms you can hear: parle, parlons and parlez. The writing keeps the distinctions; the voice relies on the pronoun.

That is the first idea of this piece, and it explains why French, unlike Spanish or Italian, never drops the subject pronoun. The second is that the endings repeat across thousands of verbs. Learn three small tables and you can build the present tense of almost every verb you will meet. Irregular verbs wait for the next piece; everything here is regular.

Who is speaking: the subject pronouns

Because several forms sound alike, the pronoun carries the person in speech, and it is never left out. These are the six slots every French verb table uses.

Pronoun	Means	Note
je (j’)	I	j’ before a vowel or a mute h: j’aime, j’habite
tu	you, one person you know well	friends, family, children, and between young people
il, elle, on	he, she, one, we	things are il or elle by gender: la table is elle
nous	we	common in writing and careful speech
vous	you, polite or plural	one person you address formally, or any group
ils, elles	they	elles only for an all-female group; ils for any mixed group

Tu or vous? Vous is the safe default with an adult you do not know: a shop assistant, a neighbour, a colleague you have just met, anyone older. Tu is for friends, family, children and, among young people, almost everyone their age. Moving from vous to tu is a small social event: often the older or more senior person offers it (On peut se tutoyer ?). Habits vary. Quebec uses tu more readily, and many French workplaces, especially young ones, use it from the first day. When unsure, start with vous; nobody is offended by it.

On is the word to learn early. Its dictionary meaning is “one” or “people” (En France, on mange tard), but in everyday speech it has largely replaced nous for “we”: On va au cinéma ? It takes the il form of the verb, so it is also easier to conjugate.

-er verbs: nine out of ten

The infinitive, the dictionary form, ends in -er, -ir or -re. Take the ending off and you have the stem: parl-. The -er family is by far the largest, and new verbs join it (surfer, googler), so this is the table to learn first.

	parler (to speak)	aimer (to like)	You hear
je, j’	parle	aime	parl, èm
tu	parles	aimes	parl, èm
il, elle, on	parle	aime	parl, èm
nous	parlons	aimons	parlon, èmon
vous	parlez	aimez	parlé, èmé
ils, elles	parlent	aiment	parl, èm

The nous form ends in -ons, a nasal vowel, and the vous form in -ez, said like é. With a verb that starts with a vowel you can hear one more thing: liaison. Il aime has no z; ils aiment does (il-zèm). That z is often the only clue in speech that more than one person is involved.

These are the twenty -er verbs the trainer below uses: parler (speak), aimer (like, love), habiter (live), travailler (work), étudier (study), jouer (play), regarder (watch), écouter (listen to), chercher (look for), trouver (find), donner (give), penser (think), demander (ask), arriver (arrive), rester (stay), fermer (close), aider (help), danser (dance), chanter (sing), oublier (forget).

-ir verbs like finir

The second family adds -iss- in the plural. It is a smaller group, about three hundred verbs, many of them about change: grandir (grow up), rougir (blush), vieillir (grow old).

	finir (to finish)	choisir (to choose)
je	finis	choisis
tu	finis	choisis
il, elle, on	finit	choisit
nous	finissons	choisissons
vous	finissez	choisissez
ils, elles	finissent	choisissent

The singular forms all sound like fini; the plural forms sound the double s. Not every verb in -ir belongs here: partir, dormir and sortir follow a different pattern, which the next piece teaches. Learn each new -ir verb with its nous form and you will know which family it is in. The trainer uses six: finir, choisir, réussir (succeed), grandir, réfléchir (think it over) and remplir (fill).

-re verbs like vendre

The third regular family drops the ending in the il form altogether.

	vendre (to sell)	attendre (to wait)
je, j’	vends	attends
tu	vends	attends
il, elle, on	vend	attend
nous	vendons	attendons
vous	vendez	attendez
ils, elles	vendent	attendent

In the singular, the d is silent: vends and vend both sound like the nasal van. In the plural it comes back: vendent ends in a clear d. The trainer uses vendre, attendre, entendre (hear), répondre (answer), perdre (lose) and descendre (go down).

What the present tense covers

French has no separate form for “I am speaking” or “I do speak”. Je parle covers “I speak”, “I am speaking” and “I do speak”, and often the near future too: Je pars demain, “I’m leaving tomorrow”. Never translate “I am speaking” word for word: je suis parle is not French. If you need to stress that something is happening right now, say Je suis en train de parler, “I’m in the middle of speaking”.

French also uses the present for something that started in the past and is still true, with depuis: J’habite ici depuis trois ans, “I have lived here for three years”.

Negatives and questions

Negatives wrap the verb in two words: ne before it and pas after it. Je ne parle pas allemand. Before a vowel, ne becomes n’: Je n’aime pas le café. In relaxed speech almost everyone drops the ne (J’aime pas le café), but keep it in writing.

Questions can be asked three ways, from casual to formal:

Way	Example	Where
Rising voice	Tu parles anglais ?	everyday conversation
Est-ce que at the front	Est-ce que tu parles anglais ?	neutral, fine anywhere
Inversion	Parlez-vous anglais ?	formal speech and writing

There is no helper like English “do”. In inversion, a -t- joins two vowels so they do not collide: Parle-t-il anglais ? In written French there is a space before ?, !, : and ;, a convention you will see on this page.

A short exchange that uses nothing but what is on this page:

— Tu travailles ici ?	Do you work here?
— Non, j’étudie ici. Je travaille dans un magasin.	No, I study here. I work in a shop.
— Tu habites où ?	Where do you live?
— Près de la gare. On mange ensemble ?	Near the station. Shall we eat together?

Train the forms: the conjugation trainer

A prompt appears, such as nous · finir · to finish, and you type the form. A wrong or revealed form comes back sooner (after about three questions, and again after about nine), and forms you keep getting right come up less and less often. Switch families on and off with the first row of buttons. Tap the accent buttons when your keyboard makes accents slow. With strict accents off, a form missing an accent or a cedilla is accepted with a gentle reminder. You may type the pronoun or leave it out.

Common mistakes

• Saying the -ent. Ils parlent sounds exactly like il parle. The ending is for the eye only.
• Forgetting the elision. Je aime is wrong; write and say j’aime. The same goes for ne: je n’aime pas.
• Translating “I am doing”. Je suis travaille is not French; the present alone does the job: je travaille.
• Putting pas in the wrong place. The two parts go around the verb: je ne parle pas, not je ne pas parle.
• Using tu with a stranger. With an adult you have just met, start with vous and let them suggest tu.
• Putting every -ir verb in the finir family. Nous partons, not nous partissons. Learn the nous form with each new verb.

Your next four days

Ten minutes a day, in this order: review your due cards, do the drill, then say two or three sentences aloud.

Day	Trainer	Say aloud
1	10 forms: -er verbs only	Three things you do every day, starting with je.
2	10 forms: -er, then add -ir	Three things you and a friend do, with on.
3	10 forms: add -re	Ask three questions with est-ce que.
4	10 forms: all three families	Say three things you do not do, with ne… pas.

What sticks

• French always keeps the subject pronoun, because several forms sound the same.
• -er verbs: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent; the -e, -es and -ent endings are silent.
• -ir verbs like finir add -iss- in the plural; -re verbs like vendre drop the ending for il.
• Vous is polite or plural; tu is for people you know well. On is the everyday “we” and takes the il form.
• One present tense covers “I speak”, “I am speaking” and often the near future.
• Ne… pas goes around the verb; a question can rise, start with est-ce que, or invert.