Mastering French Verb Conjugations: A Guide to Tenses, Moods and Practice

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Verb conjugation is one of the most complex topics in the French language. Nouns don't have to change in every sentence, but verbs insist on it! And just when you think you've learned the rules, there's another irregular verb or confusing tense to trip you up.

But what if you could see all the conjugation topics in one place? Then you could absorb how much there is to learn from the beginning and find the next topic you should focus on.

From the earliest verb tables to advanced concepts, this guide to French verb conjugation is as comprehensive as it gets.

There's a summary of every topic you'll need to learn, how to learn it, and in what order. Read on to find out where you are, and what you should study next.

How to Start Learning French Verb Conjugation

To conjugate a verb is to change how it's written and pronounced to suit the context of the sentence. We do this in English too; think of how "I run" changes to "she runs."

This is often the first conjugation we learn in a foreign language: conjugating the verb based on the subject in the present tense. For a complete beginner’s guide to verb conjugation, including essential tips and practice exercises, check out our French Verb Conjugation Essentials: A Beginner's Guide. Hence our first topic: conjugation tables.

French Verb Conjugation Tables

Conjugation tables are a fantastic shortcut to finding a conjugation. They allow you to check the conjugation of a verb in every tense without having to learn all of the rules.

Of course, learning the conjugation rules will eventually be essential to speaking naturally. It allows you to figure out the correct verb conjugation without having to look it up.

But using the tables is a great place to begin. Get started with our verb conjugation tables for 100 common verbs, complete with EVERY tense!

How to Use French Verbs "être" and "avoir"

Now you have the tables for quick reference, it's time to start learning some rules!

If you start the process with some of the most common verbs, "être" (to be) and "avoir" (to have), you may run into a problem. Although these verbs are essential to the French language, they're irregular. They have their own set of rules.

So to start, learn how to use "être" and "avoir" in each tense. Check out the "être" conjugation table and "avoir" conjugation table to begin practising.

Before we move on, there's one more thing you should know about how these two verbs affect conjugation.

Helping Verbs

Both English and French use helping verbs in certain tenses. These occur when one verb is added to conjugate another. For example, in English, you can say:

She has left for work already.

In this sentence, the verb is "leave." However, in this tense, the verb "has" is added as a helping verb.

In compound tenses, French similarly uses "être" and "avoir" as helping verbs. Here are the rules to remember:

"être" is used for pronominal verbs and some intransitive verbs
"avoir" is used in all other cases

French Verb Conjugation Groups

Once you're used to using "être" and "avoir", it's time to learn the rest of the verb rules. The best place to start is the conjugation classes.

Conjugation groups are categories of verbs with their own conjugation rules. French has three conjugation groups:

Regular verbs ending in -ER
Regular verbs ending in -IR
All other verbs

The first two groups have a simple set of conjugation rules that you can master in no time.

The last category includes what are called semi-regular verbs and irregular verbs. These verbs don't follow a strict set of rules. Each has its own conjugation quirks. But if you learn the rules for each irregular verb as you come across it, it's totally manageable!

Moving on to Advanced Concepts

When you've gotten used to the three conjugation groups, you're ready to move on to advanced French verb conjugation concepts.

You're already familiar with the first concept, tense, from the conjugation tables. To take your French skills up a level, though, you need all five.

Tense

As you'll see in all the verb conjugation tables, verb tense is the biggest factor in determining how to conjugate a verb. But you'll also notice there are more than three verb tenses!

That's because "tense" and "verb tense" are different.

Strictly speaking, tense only refers to the past, present, and future versions of a verb. This time-related factor is also called temporality.

But there are more than 20 verb tenses in French. That's because verb tense is a combination of temporality, mood, and aspect! Read on to understand these concepts.

Mood

All French verbs have a mood. Verb mood is often described as the attitude of the verb. There are four moods, each of which have to be conjugated differently:

Indicative: for making statements
Conditional: for hypotheticals
Subjunctive: for expressing possibility or doubt
Imperative: for instructions, commands, or permission

You likely already know how to conjugate verbs in the indicative mood. This is the most frequently used mood in daily language. That leaves only three to learn!

Transitivity

Even though the French (and English) grammar pattern is Subject-Verb-Object, not all verbs need objects. For example, consider this sentence:

I shopped.

One cannot "shop" an object. The verb "shop" doesn't act on an object, or require one. So it is intransitive. However, consider this sentence:

I planted.

That doesn't make sense. One has to plant something, like a tree or a seed. This verb requires an object, so it is transitive.

This concept is called verb transitivity. To learn how and when transitivity affects verb conjugation in French, check out our French verb transitivity article.

Voice

If you've learnt some conjugation rules already, you know how to use the active voice. This is one of three French verb voices:

Active voice
Passive voice
Pronominal voice

The verb voice in French dictates whether the subject performs a verb or undergoes a verb. As your choice of voice changes the meaning of the sentence, it needs to be conjugated differently. Start learning the French verb voice rules in our article and attached exercises.

Aspect

The final advanced concept is verb aspect. The aspect of a verb expresses how a verb progresses through time, or in relation to other events. The four aspects are:

Habitual: indicating verb action regularity
Imperfective: indicating an incomplete verb action
Perfective: indicating a complete verb action
Progressive: indicating an ongoing verb action

You're probably using these aspects already without realising it. But to make your speech accurate and deliberate, study how each verb aspect affects conjugation in French.

Start learning French verb conjugations today!

If French verb conjugation seems a little overwhelming, don't worry! Even native speakers get caught out sometimes, especially with irregular verbs that don't stick to the rules.

The key to progress is to keep moving forward, one step at a time.

Use our grammar lessons and exercises to take the next step in your Study Plan. Then use our kwizzes to check if you've mastered a concept and are ready to move on to the next. Get access to these tools and more with a free Kwiziq account today!

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