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
Quick Quiz – Written Recall
Can you fill in the blanks to complete the verbs we learned?
