Question about verb ending

Hodayah S.A1Kwiziq community member

Question about verb ending

I don't understand, why is it "allez" with a z at the end but "êtes" with an s? Isn't it the same form?

Asked 3 weeks ago
CélineKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Bonjour Hodayah,

Jim's correct! French verbs fall into different conjugation groups and irregular verbs especially don’t follow one single pattern. Here, the verbs être and aller don't follow regular conjugation patterns. So, memorising them is key.

Take a look here: 

Conjugation of aller = To go

Conjugation of être = To be

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Bonjour Hodayah,

This is a tricky aspect of French grammar.

There are two parts to each verb  --  the stem, which remains constant and the variable ending.

There are three groups of verbs  --  the first group has endings in er

The second group have endings in ir, and the third group is made up of all of the other verbs, including aller.

Your query refers to different tenses  --  vous allez in the présent indicatif but vous êtes in the passé composé  indicatif -- aller takes the auxiliary être.

I am currently unable to locate the appropriate Kwiziq lesson, which will explain further, but you may wish to purchase an excellent reference on this subject Bescherelle for example.

I hope that this will help you.

Bonne continuation

Jim

Hodayah S. asked:

Question about verb ending

I don't understand, why is it "allez" with a z at the end but "êtes" with an s? Isn't it the same form?

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