Notice that the verb form changes whenever the subject changes.
These different verb forms are known as conjugations. They indicate the subject (I, you, he/she/it, we, you formal, and they) and tense (ie. present, past, or future).
The conjugations of regular verbs (verbes réguliers m.) follow easy to predict patterns while irregular verbs (verbes irréguliers m.) don't. Être, the verb on this page, is one of the irregulars. Two other important irregular verbs are aller (to go) and pouvoir (can).
| je |
suis |
| tu |
es |
| il / elle |
est |
| nous |
sommes |
| vous |
êtes |
| ils / elles |
sont |
|
| je |
vais |
| tu |
vas |
| il / elle |
va |
| nous |
allons |
| vous |
allez |
| ils / elles |
vont |
|
| je |
peux |
| tu |
peux |
| il / elle |
peut |
| nous |
pouvons |
| vous |
pouvez |
| ils / elles |
peuvent |
|
Je peux !
I can!
practice
The infinitive (l'infinitif) is displayed at the top
of each verb's conjugation table. Besides serving to identify a verb,
it is employed whenever the tense or the person need not
be indicated. This is the case when verbs are strung together. The first
verb marks the tense and person.
Elle va être ici.
She's going to be here.
The infinitive is also used when a verb follows a preposition.
Il va aller là-bas.
He's going to go over there.
To negate something surround the verb with ne and pas.
Ne, like je, drops it's vowel when
it comes before a vowel. This is called élision.
In casual speech, the ne is often dropped.
This introductory guide doesn't explore conjugations in depth, so every now and then we're going to send you to the conjugation guide. Now would be a good time to study the regular
verbs which are divided into -er ending verbs, -ir ending verbs and -re ending verbs.