Your Essential Guide to French -ER Verbs: Master Them All

Verbs are the core of French grammar. Without a verb, you can’t form a complete sentence, and it’s quite difficult to communicate without them! Those mastering French and other Romance languages are often surprised at how many forms French verbs have. Unlike English, which possesses only a few forms, subject-verb agreement and the inherent “conjugation” of verbs often go unnoticed. In French though, you’ll need to learn six distinct forms for every tense (of which there are quite a lot). 

Mastering French conjugation takes practice and patience. Luckily, most French verbs follow conjugation patterns based on the last two letters of their infinitive (unconjugated) form. There are three distinct verb endings in French: -ER, -IR, and -RE. 

In this post, we’ll explore the “easiest” verbs with -ER endings! We call them easy because they follow predictable patterns with very few exceptions. Once you’re comfortable with these, the -IR and -RE verbs won’t seem nearly as intimidating. 

Want to skip the memorization altogether? Rosetta Stone can help you master French verb tenses through fun, engaging lessons that tap into how you learned language as a child—no memorization required. Instead, you’ll learn how to identify conjugation patterns from real-life French in engaging contexts. Learn more about Dynamic Immersion here, or sign up for your first lesson today! 

List of the most common French -ER verbs 

Around 90 percent of the verbs in the French language end in -ER and belong to this category. Here are some of the most common. Paying attention to the patterns presented in this post can unlock thousands of -ER verbs to help you communicate more effectively!   

French	English
aller	to go
parler	to speak, to talk
aimer	to love, to like
passer	to pass, to pass by
penser	to think
trouver	to find
laisser	to leave
arriver	to arrive
donner	to give
regarder	to look at, to watch
appeler	to call
rester	to stay
arrêter	to stop
demander	to ask, to ask for
chercher	to look for
aider	to help
essayer	to try
jouer	to play
oublier	to forget
travailler	to work
voyager	to travel
manger	to eat
entrer	to go in, to enter
commencer	to begin, to start

>>Need a vocab refresh? Try these 100+ must-know French words and phrases on for size. 

How to conjugate regular French -ER verbs 

Once you learn how to conjugate -ER verbs in French, you’ll have conquered countless ways to express states of action, existence, possession, and occurrence. It’s a great milestone to reach! 

 There are several things to keep in mind as you approach conjugation:

• What is the tense that best expresses your idea? 
• Who or what is the subject? 
• Is a separate mood required, like the subjunctive? 

Learners often benefit from conjugation charts as a reference. Once familiar with the charts and endings, allow the patterns to jump out at you as you read in French. Reading is helpful, as many of the endings are pronounced similarly.  

>>Want the complete guide to French verb conjugation? Click here. 

Present tense (indicative, l’indicatif) 

The present tense is used to tell what happens regularly, does happen, and is happening at the moment.  

To form regular -ER verbs in this tense: 

1. Remove the -ER ending

What remains is the stem.  

2. Add the ending that matches the subject. 

Regular -ER verbs (present tense, indicative) 

Je I	-e	Nous We	-ons
Tu You, informal	-es	Vous You, formal/plural	-ez
Il, Elle He, She	-e	Ils, Elles They	-ent

• Elle joue du violon. = She plays the violin. 
• Vous parlez bien. = You speak well.  

Imperfect tense (l’imparfait)

The imperfect tense is one of the main past tenses in French. It is used as a descriptive past: to tell what something was like, what usually happened, and describe other ongoing states in the past.  

There are no irregular -ER verbs in the imperfect tense. Even aller (to go), which is typically irregular, will follow this pattern. Only être (to be) is irregular in the imparfait.  

To form the imperfect: 

1. Remove the -ons from the nous form of the present tense. This is the stem. 
2. Add the endings in the chart below, according to the subject.

Regular -ER verbs (imparfait) 

Je I	-ais	Nous We	-ions
Tu You, informal	-ais	Vous You, formal/plural	-iez
Il, Elle He, She	-ait	Ils, Elles They	-aient

• Je voulais nager. = I wanted to swim. 
• Elle ne pouvait pas danser. = She couldn’t dance. 

Simple past tense (passé simple)

The passé simple is only used in formal, literary, or historic writing. You probably won’t hear anyone speak in the passé simple unless they are reading from a text. In informal speech, you will use the passé composé instead.

You will recognize that the passé simple uses the stem of the verb without the -ER, and the following endings: 

Regular -ER verbs (passé simple) 

Je I	-ai	Nous We	-âmes
Tu You, informal	-as	Vous You, formal/plural	-âtes
Il, Elle He, She	-a	Ils, Elles They	-èrent

Below is an example of the passé simple applied to the verb coucher (to lie down) from The Little Prince. We highly recommend the book for beginner learners looking to expand their French knowledge! 

“Et couché dans l’herbe, il pleura.” = And lying in the grass, he cried.  

– Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Past tense (le passé composé)

The passé composé is used to narrate completed actions in the past. It is made of two parts, a helping verb (or auxiliary verb), and a past participle. It will be important to distinguish between this tense and the imparfait.  

Most regular -ER verbs in French will use avoir (to have) as the auxiliary verb. A specific list of -ER verbs belong to the group that uses être (to be). All past tense reflexive (or pronominal) verbs are conjugated with être as well.  

To form the passé composé: 

1. Conjugate either avoir or être, ensuring they agree with their subjects. 
2. Remove the -ER and add é 
3. Add the feminine or plural agreement to the past participle when necessary. 

• All verbs that use être have this feature
• In some circumstances, avoir verbs will also need agreement of the past participle. 

-ER Verbs that use avoir as the auxiliary (passé composé)  

These verbs follow a similar pattern to danser (to dance). 

j’ai dansé	I danced	nous avons dansé	we danced
tu as dansé	you danced (singular/ informal)	vous avez dansé	you danced (formal/plural)
il/elle a dansé	he/she danced	ils/elles ont dansé	they danced

-ER verbs that use être as the auxiliary (passé composé) 

These verbs follow a similar pattern to arriver (to arrive) and must also show agreement of the past participle in both gender and number.

je suis arrivé je suis arrivée	I arrived (masculine)  I arrived (feminine)	nous sommes arrivés nous sommes arrivées	we arrived (m.)  we arrived (f.)
tu es arrivé tu es arrivée	you arrived (m.)  you arrived (f.)	vous êtes arrivé vous êtes arrivée vous êtes arrivés vous êtes arrivées	you arrived (m.s.)  you arrived (f.s.) you arrived (m. pl.)  you arrived (f. pl)
il est arrivé elle est arrivée	he arrived she arrived	ils sont arrivés elles sont arrivées	they arrived (m.)  they arrived (f.)

Future tense (le futur)

There is a way to use aller in a construction that tells the near future: 

Je vais étudier demain. = I am going to study tomorrow.

However, the futur simple is a tense that is used to express future intentions and plans, or foretell what will happen in the future. It corresponds to the English “will + verb.” 

There are regular and irregular stems. Thankfully, every -ER verb conjugation is regular in the futur except for aller (to go), which is discussed separately. 

To form the futur simple of regular -ER verbs, 

1. Use the entire infinitive
2. Add the ending that matches the subject

Regular -ER verbs (futur simple) 

Je I	-ai	Nous We	-ons
Tu You, informal	-as	Vous You, formal/plural	-ez
Il, Elle He, She	-a	Ils, Elles They	-ont

Un jour, je parlerai toutes les langues ! = One day, I will speak all the languages!

Conditional tense (conditionnel)

The conditional tense (or mood) is used to say what “would” happen if the conditions were right.  

The conditional is a nice tense to learn, because you make use of parts you already know! To form the conditional, use the same stem as the futur and add the endings for the imparfait. 

Forming the conditionnel of -ER verbs is easy.  

1. Use the infinitive of the verb (which is the futur stem)
2. Add the imparfait ending that matches the subject.  

As usual, aller (to go) is irregular.   

Regular -ER verbs (conditionnel) 

Je I	-ais	Nous We	-ions
Tu You, informal	-ais	Vous You, formal/plural	-iez
Il, Elle He, She	-ait	Ils, Elles They	-aient

• Si j’étais plus jeune, je mangerais des croissants tous les matins. = If I were younger, I would eat croissants every morning. 

Subjunctive mood (subjonctif)

The subjunctive is a mood, distinguished from the indicatif (indicative) mood, because of the situations in which you would use it. It’s a big concept, but put in simple terms, the subjunctive is used to express uncertainty, doubt, or a sense of fuzzy reality, as well as in sentences that impose a will or desire on another subject.  

Thankfully there is only one -ER verb conjugation that is extremely irregular. You may have already guessed that aller (to go) won’t follow the rules. Verbs with spelling changes will have a slight difference to the stem.

There are not very many differences between the subjunctive and the indicative when it comes to regular -ER verbs. You only need to remember the extra “i” in the nous and vous forms. 

Regular -ER verbs (subjonctif au présent) 

Je I	-e	Nous We	-ions
Tu You, informal	-es	Vous You, formal/plural	-iez
Il, Elle He, She	-e	Ils, Elles They	-ent

• Il faut que vous regardiez le manuel de formation. = It is necessary that you look at the training manual. 

Imperative mood (l’imperatif) 

The imperative is a mood, separate from the indicatif and the subjonctif moods. It is used to give a direct command. There are three types of imperative commands which are exclusively used with tu, nous, and vous.  

It’s really simple! 

1. For the tu commands, use the present tense form, but remove the final s.  
2. For nous and vous commands, there are no changes to the spelling. 
3. Use an exclamation point to show the imperative.  

–	–	Nous We	-ons !
Tu You, informal	-e !	Vous You, formal/plural	-ez !
–	–	–	–

• Regarde ! Une chauve-souris ! = Look! A bat! 

How to conjugate irregular French -ER verbs

Some verbs simply don’t follow the rules! Irregular verbs are common, but when it comes to -ER verbs in French, there is only one totally irregular verb, aller (to go).  

Aller

Since aller (to go) is completely irregular, it’s one that you’ll need to learn separately, and unfortunately, in many of the tenses, there is no pattern to follow. Like many completely irregular verbs, it’s a very common one, so it’s worth giving it some extra attention. 

aller – to go 

	Présent	Passé composé	Futur simple	Conditionnel	Subjonctif	Imperatif
Je/J’ I	vais	suis allé(e)	irai	irais	aille	–
Tu You, informal	vas	es allé(e)	iras	irais	ailles	va !
Il, Elle He, She	va	est allé(e)	ira	irait	aille	–
Nous We	allons	sommes allé(e)s	irons	irions	allions	allons !
Vous You, formal	allez	êtes allé(e)(s)	irez	iriez	alliez	allez !
Ils, Elles They	vont	sont allé(e)s	iront	iraient	aillent	–

You can use the regular -ER verb patterns to conjugate aller in the imparfait and passé simple.

-ER verbs with spelling changes 

Usually we can remove the -ER from the infinitive and leave the rest alone, giving us the “stem” needed for forming verb conjugations. In some cases, there is a spelling change. This is usually done to preserve the pronunciation that we associate with the word.   

Spelling changes happen for verbs that end in -GER, such as manger (to eat), voyager (to travel), and nager (to swim). In front of an ending that begins with a or o, the g requires a buffer of an additional e in order to preserve the pronunciation of the soft “g” sound that we associate with these verbs.  

Other -GER verbs will follow this pattern. 

nager – to swim

	Présent	Imparfait	Passé simple	Imperatif
Je/J’ I	nage	nageais	nageai	–
Tu You, informal	nages	nageais	nageas	nage !
Il, Elle He, She	nage	nageait	nagea	–
Nous We	nageons	nagions	nageâmes	nageons !
Vous You, formal	nagez	nagiez	nageâtes	nagez !
Ils, Elles They	nagent	nageaient	nagèrent	–

There is no need to change the spelling in tenses where the endings do not begin with a or o. 

A similar pattern is seen with verbs that end in -CER, such as avancer (to advance), balancer (to balance), and prononcer (to pronounce). When the ending begins with a or o, the c in the stem will need to change to a ç in order to preserve the soft “s” sound. 

Other verbs that end in -CER will follow this pattern. 

avancer – to advance 

	Présent	Imparfait	Passé simple	Imperatif
Je/J’ I	avance	avançais	avançai	–
Tu You, informal	avance	avançais	avanças	avance !
Il, Elle He, She	avance	avançait	avança	–
Nous We	avançons	avancions	avançâmes	avançons !
Vous You, formal	avancez	avanciez	avançâtes	avancez !
Ils, Elles They	avancent	avançaient	avancèrent	–

Due to the spelling of the endings, there are no changes in the other tenses. 

-ER verbs with stem changes

Another type of spelling irregularity is called a stem-change verb. These types of verbs have a change in the stem in every conjugation except the nous and vous form.  

This happens because of spelling conventions in French. Once you see the patterns, it’s not too tricky to apply them to similar verbs. 

Some verbs require è with an accent grave in place of é or e. Some examples of this would be acheter (to buy), promener (to walk), répéter (to repeat), and préférer (to prefer). 

acheter – to buy

	Présent	Futur simple	Conditionnel	Subjonctif	Imperatif
Je/J’ I	achète	achèterai	achèterais	achète	–
Tu You, informal	achètes	achèteras	achèterais	achètes	achète !
Il, Elle He, She	achète	achètera	achèterait	achète	–
Nous We	achetons	achèterons	achèterions	achetions	achetons !
Vous You, formal	achetez	achèterez	achèteriez	achetiez	achetez !
Ils, Elles They	achètent	achèteront	achèteraient	achètent	–

Master French -ER verbs with Rosetta Stone

These verb charts are tried and true for a reason. They are an excellent reference and a shortcut for understanding the concept of verb conjugations and tenses. Learning the endings can help you to structure sentences correctly, create more sophisticated sentences, and impress native speakers with your accuracy! 

However, if every time you want to communicate, you need to think through a chart and steps and rules to follow, it will impede your communication. To be truly fluent, it’s essential to use your knowledge of these French verb conjugations and notice them in action, in real-life context.  

Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion method is a proven way to get the exposure to the patterns of conjugating verbs in a way that will boost your fluency. Because you’ll be interacting with essential contexts and structures in an engaging way, you’ll be well on your way to smooth and fluent communication! 

Start learning today!

Written by Jamie Edwards

Jamie is a learner and teacher of Spanish and French. When she’s not learning new words, you’ll find her on the soccer sidelines, ski slopes, and track and field bleachers enjoying the four seasons of Western New York.