Präsens: Verben auf -er

Verbs ending in -er make up the large majority of French verbs, and new verbs join this group (surfer, googler). Apart from aller, they are regular: learn one and you can conjugate thousands.

Take off -er and add the endings:

Five spellings, three sounds

Je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent all sound the same: [paʁl]. The -ent of the third person plural is silent, which surprises almost every English speaker - do not say "parl-ent". Only parlons [paʁlɔ̃] and parlez [paʁle] sound different. So in speech you hear three forms, and the pronoun tells you who is speaking.

One French present, two English ones

Je parle covers "I speak", "I'm speaking" and, in questions, "do I speak". Do not look for a separate French form for "-ing": J'habite à Lille is "I live in Lille", and Je mange can be "I'm eating".

Spelling changes

• Verbs in -ger keep an e before -ons so the g stays soft: nous mangeons, nous voyageons.
• Verbs in -cer write ç before -ons: nous commençons.
• Some verbs change their stem vowel when the ending is silent: acheter → j'achète, appeler → je m'appelle, préférer → je préfère (but nous achetons, vous préférez).