by S Morris

Created on: August 04, 2009

French verbs that end in "er" are a part of a group called the "-ER" group. Some examples of this verb group are parler, aimer, and demander. All regular verbs of this group conjugate the same way. The way to begin conjugating a regular "-ER" verb is to first drop the "er" from the word. The word that's left is called the stem or radical. The stem of parler, for instance, is parl. To finish conjugating verb, you then add an ending. The ending will depend on which tense you want to change it to. This is a list of common tenses' endings.

Present Tense
Singular, 1st person: -e; Plural, 1st person: -ons
Singular, 2nd person: -es; Plural, 2nd person: -ez
Singular, 3rd person: -e; Plural, 3rd person: -ent

Imperfect Tense
Singular, 1st person: -ais; Plural, 1st person: -mes
Singular, 2nd person: -ais; Plural, 2nd person: -tes
Singular, 3rd person: -ait; Plural, 3rd person: -rent

Future Tense
Singular, 1st person: erai; Plural, 1st person: erons
Singular, 2nd person: eras; Plural, 2nd person: erez
Singular, 3rd person: era; Plural, 3rd person: eraient

Conditional Tense
Singular, 1st person: -erais; Plural, 1st person: -erions
Singular, 2nd person: -erais; Plural, 2nd person: -eriez
Singular, 3rd person: -erait; Plural, 3rd person: -eraient

Simple Past Tense
Singular, 1st person: -ai; Plural, 1st person: -ions
Singular, 2nd person: -as; Plural, 2nd person: -iez
Singular, 3rd person: -a; Plural, 3rd person: -aient

Subjunctive Present Tense
Singular, 1st person: -e; Plural, 1st person: -ions
Singular, 2nd person: -es; Plural, 2nd person: -iez
Singular, 3rd person: -e; Plural, 3rd person: -ent

Subjunctive Imperfect Tense
Singular, 1st person: -asse; Plural, 1st person: -assions
Singular, 2nd person: -asses; Plural, 2nd person: -assiez
Singular, 3rd person: -t; Plural, 3rd person: -assent

Imperative Tense
Singular, 2nd person: -e
Plural, 1st person: -ons
Plural, 2nd person: -ez

Past Participle: -
Present Participle: -ant

An example of conjugating the verb aimer (to love) into singular 1st person future tense (will do) is aimerai (will love). Notice how the stem aim- combines the singular 1st person future tense ending -erai to form aimerai. Another example of verb conjugation is demander (to ask) being conjugated into plural 2nd person conditional tense (would do) as demanderiez. Notice the stem demand- combines with -eriez to form demanderiez. One more example is parler (to speak) conjugated into a past participle (done): parl (spoken).

Compound tenses involve purely the past participle

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