Present Tense of Regular Verbs Ending ‘-re’
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 smallest group is the -re 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 |