How to conjugate first group verbs in French? Never make the error again

Conjugation in French can be quite complex compared to English as there are different endings depending on the pronoun. When you conjugate first group verbs in French, which mean verbs finishing by “ER” (except “aller”), the ending will be the same for any verbs but there will be some difference between present simple, past and future tenses. By the end of this article, you will be able to conjugate all verbs finishing by “ER” just by learning with one example!

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The 50 “ER” verbs most frequent in French

In French conjugation, we split verbs in 3 groups.

• The first group contains verbs finishing by “ER” (except “aller”)
• The second group with verbs finishing by “IR”
• The third group for irregular verbs

In this article, I would like to focus on how to conjugate first group verbs in French because the endings are always the same so it is easy to conjugate. Also, the first group contains most of French verbs.

I have listed below the mot frequent “ER” verbs:

Conjugating first group verbs in French: Present simple

How to form the present simple?

In French, when conjugating first group verbs at the present simple, the ending will be the same (except for “aller” which is an irregular verb and will be part of the third group).

In order to conjugate, you will remove “ER” at the end of the infinitive verb and add the following endings:
–e, –es, –e, –ons, –ez, –ent

Let’s take an example with the verb “aimer” (to like):

J’aime
Tu aimes
Il aime
Nous aimons
Vous aimez
Ils aiment

You just have to learn these 6 endings and you can conjugate any verbs from the first group verbs in French at the present tense! Practice with the verbs I gave you in the first part of this article “The 50 “ER” verbs most frequent in French”. I am sure that by the ending of this article, you will tell yourself that French conjugation is in fact not that difficult 😉

When to use present tense?

In French, we use the present simple to talk about facts, current and repeated situations but also future actions already planned.

Tous les lundis, je vais à la gym avec mes amis. (Every Monday, I go to the gym with my friends)
Je cuisine pour les invités de ce soir. (I cook for tonight’s guests)
Je commence le judo la semaine prochaine. (I starts judo next week)
Je donne des cours de Français depuis plusieurs années. (I have been giving French tuition for several years now)

Conjugating first group verbs in French: Past tense

How to form the past tense?

Imparfait

In French, when conjugating first group verbs at the imparfait, the ending will be the same (except for “aller” which is an irregular verb and will be part of the third group).

In order to conjugate, you will remove “ER” at the end of the infinitive verb and add the following endings:
–ais, –ais, –ait, –ions, –iez, –aient

Let’s take an example with the verb “aimer” (to like):

J’aimais
Tu aimais
Il aimait
Nous aimions
Vous aimiez
Ils aimaient

You just have to learn these 6 endings and you can conjugate any verbs from the first group verbs in French at the imparfait! Practice with the verbs I gave you in the first part of this article “The 50 “ER” verbs most frequent in French”.

Passé composé

In French, when conjugating first group verbs at the passé composé, you will need to use two components:
– the verb “être” or “avoir” in the present tense
– the past participle of the verb you want to conjugate

Present simple of the verb “être”: je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont

Present simple of the verb “avoir”: j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont

How to know which verb to use, “être” or “avoir”? Most of the time we use the verb “avoir”. However, for some frequent “ER” verbs, you will use the verb “être” such as: passer, entrer, rentrer, retourner, arriver, tomber, rester, monter.

What is the past participle of “ER” verbs? You remove “ER” at the end of the infinitive verb and add “é”. For example “j’ai mangé” (I have eaten).

Let’s take an example with the verb “aimer” (to like):

As you can noticed above, when we conjugate with the verb “avoir” it always finishes by “é” but with “être” it either finishes by “é”, “ée”, “és” or “ées”. But why that?

With “être”, you need to agree the verb at the past participle in gender and number but with “avoir” it is a bit different (I explain it below).
– Sophie est arrivée à la maison.
– Louis est arrivé à la maison.
– Sophie et Louis sont arrivés.
– Sophie et Léa sont arrivées.

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Gender of French nouns

If the group has ten women and one man it is be considered as if there were only men because masculine is considered as the neutral form. However, some people do not agree with it and believe it is sexist.

If you want to know more about it take a look at the below article

Feminism and French: the language of controversy

With “avoir”, you agree in gender and number only when the direct object is placed before the verb. In order to know where the direct object is place, you ask the question “what” and see if it is place before (in that case you can agree) or after the verb (in that case you will not agree).

Let’s see with an example:

Les cookies qu’ils ont mangés étaient délicieux. (The cookies they ate were delicious)
They “ate” what? “les cookies” which is placed before the verb. Therefore we can agree in gender and number with the direct object “les cookies”, which is masculine and plural so “mangés” with “és” at the end.

This might seem a bit complicated and I do not blame you! Even French people still regularly make mistakes while writing. That is why it is crucial to have solid foundations with grammar, let’s impress French people! Just try and practice with short sentences.

When to use “imparfait” and “passé composé”?

“Imparfait” and “passé composé” are used regularly when speaking in French, so they are important to know.

“Imparfait” is used to describe conditions and repeated actions. The “passé composé” allows you to mentions the consequences of past actions. Let’s see that together into more details.

Imparfait

We use the “imparfait”, in the following situations:

• Continuous action: an action happening during a significant period of time.
  Jacques Chirac était Président de la République de 1995 à 2007. (Jacques Chirac was a French President from 1995 to 2007)
  Quand j’étais petite, je ne savais pas faire du vélo. (When I was young, I did not know how to do biking)
• A condition: “imparfait” gives background to the main action.
  Il faisait plus chaud l’été dernier. (It was warmer last summer)
  Sophie visitait sa grand-mère tous les jours quand elle était plus jeune.
• Repeated actions: when we describes habits that we used to do.
  Je jouais du piano tous les jours quand j’avais 10 ans. (I used to play piano every day when I was 10)
• Physicial description.
  Il me semble que je portais une robe rouge au gala de fin d’année. (It seems to me that I was wearing a red dress at the end of year gala)
  Son visage était pâle. (His face was pale)

Passé composé

The “passé composé” describes a completed action.
J’ai eu un test d’anglais aujourd’hui. (I had an English test today)
Nous avons commandé des burgers pour ce soir. (We ordered burgers for tonight)
Je ne suis pas allé au marché aujourd’hui. (I did not go to the market today)
Il n’a pas neigé hier soir. (It did not snow last night)

Sometimes, both “imparfait” and “passé composé” are used in the same sentence. The “imparfait” will set up a condition and the “passé composé” complete the action.

Puisqu’il pleuvait hier, nous n’avons pas pu nous promener dans le parc.

Conjugating first group verbs in French: Future tense

How to form the future tense?

In French, when conjugating first group verbs at the future tense, the ending will be the same (except for “aller” which is an irregular verb and will be part of the third group).

In order to conjugate, you take the infinitive verb and add the following endings:
–ai, –as, –a, –ons, –ez, –ont

Let’s take an example with the verb “aimer” (to like):

J’aimerai
Tu aimeras
Il aimera
Nous aimerons
Vous aimerez
Ils aimeront

You just have to learn these 6 endings and you can conjugate any verbs from the first group verbs in French at the future tense! Practice with the verbs I gave you in the first part of this article “The 50 “ER” verbs most frequent in French”.

When to use future tense?

We use this tense to talk about what will happen in the future.

Nous ferons un gâteau demain. (We will baking a cake tomorrow)
J’irai en ville samedi pour m’acheter des chaussures. (I will go to town on Saturday to buy shoes)
Il n’ira pas en vacances cette année. (He will not take holidays this year)

Learn more vocabulary with the posters below to be able to make many sentences
and practice conjugating verbs by making full sentences

Vocabulary posters

Let’s pratice!

Remember that it is by practicing you will get the best results! I could give you all the free content you want, if you do not practice by yourself seriously you won’t be good in French. Here, I have created a fun game so you can practice more easily.

Let’s practice how to conjugate first group verbs in French! In this game, you will have sentences and you need to either choose the correct tense or conjugate the verb at the person and tense mentioned. You can do it as many times as you want if you want to practice again later. Let’s do it seriously but with fun!

Let me know in the comments which tense do you find the most difficult and why when you conjugate first group verbs in French? So I can support you further 🙂

A bientôt!