French Verbs – Present Tense of Regular -re Verbs

Regular verbs in French fall into one of three categories, depending on their ending. There are -er verbs, such as jouer (‘to play’), -re verbs, such as attendre (‘to wait’); and -ir verbs such as finir (‘to finish’). The biggest group is the -er verbs, covered in this lesson.

What are the present tense endings for -re verbs in French?

Verbs ending in -re are formed by first removing the -re from the infinitive to create the stem, to which the following endings are added:

je -s
tu -s
il –
elle –
nous -ons
vous -ez
ils -ent
elles -ent

Notice that the third person singular forms (il and elle) do not add any ending. The endings for the plural forms (nous, vous, ils and elles are all the same as regular -er verbs).

Let’s check this out in practice, with the verb vendre, ‘to sell,’ where the endings have been highlighted:

vendreto sell
je vendsI sell
tu vendsyou sell
il vendhe sells
elle vendshe sells
nous vendonswe sell
vous vendezyou sell
ils vendentthey sell
elles vendentthey sell

What are common -re verbs in French?

attendreto wait
défendreto defend
descendreto go down
entendreto hear
pendreto hang
perdreto lose
rendreto give back
répondreto reply
tendreto stretch
vendreto sell

Quick Quiz – Written Recall

Can you fill in the blanks to complete the verbs we learned?

Test Yourself

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