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:

vendre	to sell
je vends	I sell
tu vends	you sell
il vend	he sells
elle vend	she sells
nous vendons	we sell
vous vendez	you sell
ils vendent	they sell
elles vendent	they sell

What are common -re verbs in French?

attendre	to wait
défendre	to defend
descendre	to go down
entendre	to hear
pendre	to hang
perdre	to lose
rendre	to give back
répondre	to reply
tendre	to stretch
vendre	to sell