A1 · The present tense · about 4 minutes
Present tense: -er verbs
The largest set, and almost without exceptions.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need9
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- regarderto look at, to watch
- télé-expiratoireend-expiratory
- midimidday
- l’écolethe school
- parlerto speak
- françaisFrench
- souventoften
- prèsnear
- beaucoupa lot, very
Understand
RememberWhat you cannot hear you still have to write.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The present — What holds at the moment, what is under way, or what is always the case.
- Signal words
- souvent
- toujours
- maintenant
- tous les jours
The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) person ending
| I speak | je parle |
| you speak | tu parles |
| he, she speaks | il, elle parle |
| we speak | nous parlons |
| you speak (plural, polite) | vous parlez |
| they speak | ils, elles parlent |
This tense with other verbs
Tap a verb or type your own — the table opens at this tense, in the same colours.
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The stem is the infinitive without -er.
travailler → je travailleto work → I work
The ending -ent is not pronounced.
Ils regardent la télé.They are watching television.
Before a vowel je becomes j’.
J’habite à Lyon.I live in Lyon.
Verbs in -ger add an e before -ons to keep the g soft.
Nous mangeons à midi.We eat at midday.
Example sentences
Je travaille dans une école.I work in a school.
Tu parles très bien français.You speak French very well.
Nous mangeons souvent au restaurant.We often eat out.
1 more example sentences
Elles habitent près de la gare.They live near the station.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The third person plural ends in -ent and you cannot hear it. Write by ear and you write ils parle — the commonest spelling mistake in French, made by native speakers too. English gives no practice in this at all, because every English ending is audible. The remedy is mechanical: look at the pronoun, not at the sound.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
3 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Take the infinitive, cut off the -er and add: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. That covers almost every verb in the group, and the group covers most of the language.
Four of the six forms are pronounced the same: parle, parles, parle, parlent. Only -ons and -ez are audible. This is the opposite of the English situation, where the one ending that exists is the one you hear, so the ear is no help at all here — the pronoun is what tells you which form to write.
If the verb begins with a vowel or a silent h, je becomes j': j'habite, j'aime. That is compulsory, not casual — unlike the English «I'm», which you may always write out in full.
The verbs on this page, in every form: travailler · habiter · parler · manger · regarder