- If an infinitive in French ends in -er, it means the verb belongs to the first conjugation, for example, donner, aimer, parler.
- To know which form of the verb to use in French, you need to work out what the stem of the verb is and then add the correct ending. The stem of-er verbs in the present tense is formed by taking the infinitive and chopping off -er.
| Infinitive | Stem (without -er) |
| donner (to give) | donn- |
| aimer (to like, to love) | aim- |
| parler (to speak, to talk) | parl- |
- Now you know how to find the stem of a verb, you can add the correct ending. Which one you choose will depend on whether you are referring to je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils or elles.
- Here are the present tense endings for -er verbs:
| Pronoun | Ending | Add to stem, e.g. donn- | Meanings |
| je (j’) | -e | je donne | I give I am giving |
| tu | -es | tu donnes | you give you are giving |
| il elle on | -e | il donne elle donne on donne | he/she/it/one gives he/she/it/one is giving |
| nous | -ons | nous donnons | we give we are giving |
| vous | -ez | vous donnez | you give you are giving |
| ils elles | -ent | ils donnent elles donnent | they give they are giving |
| Marie regarde la télé. | Marie is watching TV. |
| Le train arrive à deux heures. | The train arrives at 2 o’clock. |
Tipje changes to j’ in front of a word starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o or u), most words starting with h, and the French word y.
- Note that there are a few regular -er verbs that are spelled slightly differently from the way you might expect.
Key points
- Verbs ending in -er belong to the first conjugation and form their present tense stem by losing the -er from the infinitive.
- The present tense endings for -er verbs are: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent.