A comprehensive overview of French verbs, including their role in grammar, types, and importance in building sentences and expressing actions, along with key concepts such as conjugation, subjects, and tenses.

French verbs are words that express actions, states, or occurrences and are essential for constructing sentences. They change form through conjugation to agree with the subject (who is doing the action) and to indicate the tense (when the action happens), such as present, past, or future. French has three main verb groups (-er, -ir, -re), plus many irregular verbs that must be memorized. Understanding verbs is key to mastering French grammar and communication.

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Present Tense

Regular Verbs (-er, -ir, -re)

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Affirmative Commands

Modal Auxiliaries (vouloir, pouvoir, devoir)

Pronominal/Reflexive Verbs

Progressive Tenses (être en train de)

Negative Commands

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Verb Types
A comprehensive overview of French verb types, including regular and irregular verbs and their role in conjugation.
- Regular Verbs (-er, -ir, -re)
  French regular verbs (-er, -ir, -re) follow standard conjugation patterns in all tenses, building on consistent stem + endings.
- Irregular Verbs
  A comprehensive guide to French irregular verbs, including their patterns, key examples, and how they differ from regular conjugations.
- Pronominal/Reflexive Verbs
  A comprehensive guide to French pronominal (reflexive) verbs, including what they are, how they work, examples, and common usage rules.
- Modal Auxiliaries (vouloir, pouvoir, devoir)
  A comprehensive guide to the French modal auxiliary verbs vouloir, pouvoir, and devoir — their meanings, usage, and examples.
Verb Conjugation
French verb conjugation is the process of changing verb forms to match the subject and tense, covering regular and irregular verbs across all moods.
- Present Tense
  Present tense in French, known as le présent de l’indicatif, is used to describe current actions, general truths, and habitual activities. It also expresses near-future events and can be used for narration.
- Past Tenses
  A comprehensive overview of French past tenses, including passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, and passé simple, explaining their usage and formation.
  - Passé Composé
    Passé composé is a French past tense used to express completed actions, using auxiliary verbs “avoir” or “être” and past participles.
  - Imparfait
    Imparfait is a French verb tense used to describe ongoing or habitual past actions, set the scene, or express what used to happen.
  - Plus-que-parfait
    Plus-que-parfait is a French past tense used to indicate actions that had already been completed before another past action. It is formed with the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) and the past participle.
  - Passé Simple (literary)
    Passé simple is a literary past tense used in French for completed actions in writing, especially in novels, history, and formal narratives.
- Future Tenses
  A comprehensive overview of French future tenses, including simple future and near future (futur proche) forms, usage, and key verbs.
  - Futur Proche
    French grammar guide explaining the futur proche tense, its usage, formation with aller + infinitive, and examples for expressing near-future actions.
  - Futur Simple
    A comprehensive guide to the French futur simple tense, including its usage, formation, irregular verbs, time expressions, and common mistakes.
  - Futur Antérieur
    The French Futur Antérieur is a compound future tense used to express actions that will have been completed before another future action or point in time.
- Conditional Tenses
  An overview of the French conditional tenses, explaining their use for expressing hypothetical situations, politeness, and future-in-the-past.
  - Present Conditional
    Present Conditional in French grammar, explaining how to form and use the conditional mood for expressing wishes, making polite requests, and hypothesizing.
  - Past Conditional
    French past conditional overview detailing formation with auxiliary verbs and past participle, usage for hypothetical past actions, regrets, and reported speech.
- Subjunctive Mood
  Subjunctive Mood is a French verb form used to express doubt, desire, emotion, necessity, or uncertainty.
  - Present Subjunctive
    A thorough explanation of the French present subjunctive, including its formation, usage, and key examples.
  - Past Subjunctive
    Past subjunctive in French grammar: usage, formation with auxiliary and past participle, and common trigger expressions.
Verbal Aspects
Verbal aspects in French, including how the language expresses the nature of actions through grammatical structures like tenses and moods.
- Perfect Tenses
  A comprehensive explanation of the three French perfect tenses (passé composé, plus-que-parfait, passé antérieur), including structure, usage, and examples.
- Progressive Tenses (être en train de)
  Progressive tenses in French using être en train de to express actions currently in progress.
Infinitives
A comprehensive overview of French infinitives, covering their forms, types (-er, -ir, -re), usage in sentences, and role in verb conjugation and grammar.
- Uses and Structure
  An overview of French infinitives, covering their uses, forms, and role in sentence construction.
Imperative Mood
An overview of the French imperative mood, explaining how it is used to give commands, make requests, or offer advice in three forms: tu, nous, and vous.
- Affirmative Commands
  Affirmative commands in French, including how to form them using the imperative mood, which pronouns are used, verb forms, and examples.
- Negative Commands
  A comprehensive guide to forming negative commands in French using the imperative mood, including rules and examples.

Last updated: Thu Jun 12, 2025

French

Verbs

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