Le présent des verbes-clés : être, avoir, aller, faire et les modaux

Unité GR-43 · campagne 25 · dix verbes portent la moitié de vos phrases — apprenez-les comme des mélodies, pas comme des tableaux.

The map of every verb family and its model verb is on Les familles de verbes.

A handful of verbs refuse every rule of French conjugation — and they are precisely the ones you cannot avoid: they carry questions, past tenses, politeness and the future. The good news: the true outlaws are only four or five, and even they rhyme with each other.

Two sound families do most of the memorizing for you

At the third person plural, four verbs — and only these four — share the ending -ont:

And at vous, three verbs — and only these three — end in -tes : vous êtes, vous faites, vous dites. Every other verb in the language takes -ez. Chant each family once a day for a week and two of the hardest corners of French are done.

The modal boot

Pouvoir, vouloir and devoir follow one shared shape: a strong vowel in the singular and at ils, the infinitive's weak vowel at nous/vous — plus the rare -x endings for the first two:

je peux, tu peux, il peut — nous pouvons, vous pouvez — ils peuvent ; je veux… nous voulons… ils veulent ; je dois… nous devons… ils doivent. Savoir joins them in spirit: je sais, nous savons, ils savent.

Prendre belongs here too: je prends, nous prenons, ils prennent — one verb, three stems, and its compounds (apprendre, comprendre) ride along free.

Going further

Minimal pairs. One change between the two sentences, and what it does:

A trap in the dire family: only dire and redire have vous dites; the other compounds take -disez — vous contredisez, vous interdisez, vous prédisez.

Savoir, pouvoir, connaître:

• savoir + infinitive for a learned skill: je sais nager;
• pouvoir for possibility or permission: je peux nager aujourd'hui;
• connaître + a noun (a person, a place): je connais Lyon.

Avoir where Russian uses other verbs: j'ai 20 ans, j'ai faim, j'ai froid; and il fait froid for the weather.

Every family and its model verb is on les familles de verbes.

Why are the most frequent verbs the irregular ones? Frequent words resist change: speakers keep using the old forms, so être, avoir, aller, faire never got regularised. Rare verbs were evened out long ago.

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