One of the most difficult aspects of learning French is tense and conjugation of verbs. The student has to memorize all 6 forms of personal endings, and given the fact that in French there are 3 groups of verbs, the process of memorization is delayed even more. So, how to understand and remember the conjugation of French verbs once and for all?
Temporary forms
Of the 16 times of the language, only 5 can be called relevant. The remaining forms are either considered to be of little use and outdated, or they relate to the written style and are irrelevant in oral conversation. Thanks to this, the student’s task is simplified a little, because he can use only the present, past and future tenses, as well as the indefinitely past form of imparfait to describe unfinished or repeated in the past actions. The last actual time will be passé immédiat, which allows you to name the action that just happened.
When studying conjugation of verbs in French, you need to pay attention to the fact that all tenses are divided into two large groups: simple and complex. For the formation of the verb form in simple tenses, only the endings of the original verb change. In complex ones, the auxiliary verb avoir or être is added to them, which itself undergoes the necessary changes.
Inclination system
Conjugation of French verbs will also depend on the mood. There are four of them in the language: indicative for all real actions, imperative for requests and orders, subjunctive for expressing desires or probabilities, and finally conditional, translated into Russian with a particle “would”. Each of these inclinations occurs in all temporary forms, although the French use only part of them in oral speech. Accordingly, based on the meaning of the proposal, it is necessary to put the predicate in the right mood and the right time (present, past or future).
Verb groups in French
Starting to study the species-time forms of verbs, the student is faced with both correct and irregular forms. If the correct verbs, and these are the 1st and 2nd groups, obey the clear rules for the formation of endings at each specific time, then conjugation of French verbs of the 3rd group is a lot of trouble for students. And although most irregular verbs are divided into many subgroups according to the type of their stem, some of the exceptions will still have to be learned.
It is best to start with the correct verbs, especially since with their help you can express almost all thoughts and actions. All newly appearing words-predicates, coming from other languages or the Internet, automatically acquire signs of regular verbs of the 1st group.
Regular verbs ending in -er
Consider the verbs 1 conjugation of French verbs. These include the infinitive (indefinite form) ending in –er. To change them over time, it is enough to mentally cut off the last two letters and substitute new endings in their place. A striking example of such a case is the verb parler ("talk, talk"). The picture shows what happens when it changes in faces and numbers in the present tense (“I say,” “You say,” “He says,” etc.)
To make it easier to remember the conjugation of French verbs of this group in the present tense, you can visually imagine a boot inside of which at an angle there are unpronounceable endings (-e, -es, -e, - ent). These are the three singular forms and the ending of the 3rd person plural. The two plural endings of the 2nd and 3rd person (- ons and –ez) are not included in the “boot”, because they are pronounced and this differs from other forms.
The exception to this group is the incorrect verb aller ("go, go"), which has its own conjugation rules.
Regular verbs ending in -ir
The conjugation of verbs in French with the ending –ir is not particularly difficult. They are also considered correct and are classified as type 2. This group is not numerous, it is mainly represented by actions related to color: blanchir - “whiten”, rougir - “blush”, although other actions come across, for example finir - “finish”. A feature of this group is the presence in all forms of the vowel –i before endings. In addition, the 2nd group is characterized by the appearance of a double consonant –s in the plural endings of the present tense, in all forms of imparfait, as well as in the subjunctive mood of the present and unfinished past tenses in all forms.
You should pay attention to the similarity of verbs of the 2nd group with representatives of irregular verbs that have the same final letters –ir in the infinitive. Conjugation of irregular French verbs occurs according to other rules, verbs do not have double –s in their forms.
Irregular Verbs
The widely represented 3rd group of verbs is distinguished by a variety of initial forms and various ways of forming endings. Some verbs in the infinitive have –ir at the end and thus resemble the 2nd group. Other common infinitive endings by which you can immediately determine their belonging to irregular verbs are –endre (defender - “protect”), -ondre (répondre - “answer”), -re (mettre - “put, put”) and many others. Fortunately, the dictionaries indicate what type a particular verb belongs to, and gradually the student begins to distinguish conjugation of French verbs of various subgroups.
The verbs être (“to be”) and avoir (“to have”) deserve special mention. They can completely change their foundation, so they require memorization. In addition, these verbs participate in the formation of all difficult tenses, which means that they are one of the main in the French language.