Conjugation of French verbs: just about the complex

One of the most difficult aspects in learning the French language are the times and conjugations of verbs. The trainee has to memorize all six forms of personal endings, and given the fact that in the French language there are 3 groups of verbs, the process of memorizing is prolonged even more. So, how to understand and remember the conjugation of French verbs once and for all?

Temporary forms

Of the 16 times of the language, only 5 can be called relevant. The remaining forms are either recognized as little used and outdated, or refer to a written style and are irrelevant in oral conversation. Thanks to this, the student's task is slightly simplified, because he can only use the present, past and future times, as well as the indefinitely-past imparfait form to describe unfinished or recurring actions in the past. The last actual time is passé immédiat, which allows you to name the action that just happened.

Studying the conjugation of verbs in French, you need to pay attention to the fact that all times are divided into two large groups: simple and complex. To form a verbal form in simple times, only the endings of the original verb change. In complex cases, an auxiliary verb avoir or être is added to them, which itself undergoes necessary changes.

The system of inclinations

The conjugation of the French verbs will depend on the inclination. There are four in them: an indicative for all real actions, imperative for requests and orders, a subjunctive for expressing desires or probabilities, and finally a conditional one, translated into Russian with a particle "would." Each of these inclinations occurs in all time forms, although in the oral speech the French use only a part of them. Accordingly, based on the meaning of the sentence, you need to put the predicate in the right mood and the right time (present, past or future).

Groups of verbs in French

Beginning to study the species-temporal forms of verbs, the student encounters both correct and irregular species. If the correct verbs, and these are the 1st and 2nd groups, obey the precise rules for the formation of endings in each specific time, then the conjugation of the French verbs of the 3rd group brings a lot of trouble to the students. And although most irregular verbs are divided into many subgroups according to the type of their basis, some of the exceptions have yet to be learned.

It is best to start with the correct verbs, especially since they can express almost all thoughts and actions with their help. All the newly emerging word-predicates, coming from other languages or the Internet, automatically acquire the signs of the correct verbs of the 1st group.

Regular verbs ending in -er

Consider verbs 1 conjugation of French verbs. These include the infinitive (an undefined form) ending in -er. To change them from time to time, it is enough to cut off the last two letters mentally and replace them with new ones. A vivid example of such a case is the verb parler ("talk, talk"). The picture shows what happens when it changes by face and number in the present tense ("I say", "You speak," "He speaks," etc.)

To make it easier to remember the conjugation of the French verbs of this group in the present tense, you can visualize the boot, within which unpronounceable endings (-e, -es, -e,-ent) are located at right angles. These are the three forms of the singular and the end of the third person plural. The two plural endings of the 2nd and 3rd person (- ons and -ez) are not included in the "boot", because they are pronounced and this is different from the other forms.

An exception for this group is the wrong verb aller ("go, go"), which has its own rules of conjugation.

Regular verbs ending in -ir

It is not particularly difficult to conjugate verbs in French with the ending -ir. They are also considered correct and referred to the second type. The group is not numerous, it is represented mainly by actions related to color: blanchir - whiten, rougir - "blush", although other actions are also encountered, for example finir - "finish". A feature of this group is the presence in all forms of the vowel -i before the endings. In addition, the second group is characterized by the appearance of a doubled consonant -s at the plural endings of the present tense, in all forms of imparfait, and in the subjunctive inclination of the present and unfinished past tense in all forms.

Attention should be paid to the similarity of verbs of the second group with representatives of irregular verbs having the same finite letters -ir in the infinitive. Conjugation of irregular French verbs occurs according to other rules, verbs do not have double -s in their forms.

Irregular Verbs

The widely represented third group of verbs is distinguished by a variety of initial forms and different ways of forming endings. Part of the verbs in the infinitive have an -ir at the end and thus remind the 2nd group. Other common infinitive endings that immediately identify their belonging to irregular verbs are -endre (defender), -ondre (répondre), -re (mettre-"put, put") and many Others. Fortunately, the dictionaries indicate which type the verb belongs to, and gradually the student begins to distinguish the conjugation of the French verbs of different subgroups.

The verbs être ("to be") and avoir ("to have") deserve special mention. They can completely change their basis, so they need to memorize. In addition, these verbs are involved in the formation of all complex times, and therefore are among the main ones in the French language.