So i have a test coming up and my french teacher is really mean and thinks that we are all stupid so i wanna get 100% so what are some tricks that help you conjugate a verb in french? I don’t understand it but she wont explain it to us! Please help!
french verbs can be classified into three groups :
1st group : verbs ending with er (also called regular verbs)
2nd group : verbs with participe present ending with "issant" like finir (en finissant)
3rd group : whichever verb that doesn’t belong to the first two groups
1st group (the easiest and most common french verbs)
present simple : you keep the verb (without er) and add : e, es, e, ons, ez, ent like chanter : je chantE, tu chantES, il chantE, nous chantONS, vous chantEZ, ils chantENT
futur : you keep the verb and add, ai, as, a, ons, ez, ont : je chanterAI, tu chanterAS, il chanterA, nous chanterONS, vous chanterEZ, ils chnaterONT
imparfait : you keep the verb (without er) and add ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient : je chantAIS, tu chantAIS, il chantAIT, nous chantIONS, vous chantIEZ, ils chantAIENT
passé simple : you keep the verb without er and add ai, as, a, âmes, âtes, èrent : je chantAI, tu chantAS, il chantA, nous chantÂMES, vous chantÂTES, ils chantèRENT.
of course there are always some exceptions to the rule like Aller :
present simple : je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont
imparfait : j’allais, tu allais, il allait, nous allions, vous alliez, ils allaient
passé simple : j’allai, tu allas, il alla, nous allâmes, vous allâtes, ils allèrent
futur : j’irai, tu iras, il ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils iront
for the verbs belonging to the second and third groups, you need to learn them by heart.