Pourquoi « j'appelle » mais « nous appelons » ? Les verbes qui changent pour se prononcer

Unité GR-56 · campagne 25 · appeler, jeter, acheter, espérer, essuyer, étudier, commencer, manger.

Most -er verbs keep one stem through the whole present: je parle, nous parlons. A group of them seem to break that rule — j'appelle but nous appelons, j'achète but nous achetons, j'essuie but nous essuyons. They are not irregular. They all obey one sound rule, and the spelling changes only to show the sound.

The one rule behind all of them

French does not pronounce two mute e in a row, and a stem that ends in e + consonant changes its sound depending on what follows:

• when the ending is silent (-e, -es, -e, -ent) — or in the futur and conditionnel, where the e of -erai is not pronounced — the stem's e is said [ɛ], open, as in mère;
• when the ending is pronounced (-ons, -ez, and the imparfait), the stem's e stays mute [ə], or disappears.

The spelling has two ways to write that open [ɛ]: an accent grave (è), or a doubled consonant (ll, tt). That is the whole mechanism. Everything below is which verb uses which.

The classes

A way to hear the class from the infinitive: -eler and -eter double (only for appeler, jeter and their compounds under the 1990 spelling); every other e + consonant + -er takes è; é + consonant + -er turns é into è only before a silent ending; -yer turns y into i before a mute e.

Stems that end in a vowel: étudier, jouer, créer

These change nothing — and that is exactly what catches learners. The stem keeps its vowel, the ending is added in full, and the result can put two identical letters side by side:

• Imparfait and subjonctif (nous, vous): the stem étudi- + -ions gives nous étudiions, vous étudiiez — two i. Same for nous riions (rire), nous criions.
• Futur: the infinitive is the stem, so the e is written even though it is not heard: j'étudierai, je jouerai, je continuerai.
• Créer: je crée, and the participle créé / créée — three e in a row, each one needed.

-cer and -ger: keeping the soft sound before a and o

C is soft [s] before e, i and hard [k] before a, o, u; g is soft [ʒ] before e, i and hard before a, o, u. To keep the verb's soft sound before a or o, the spelling adds a cedilla or an e:

• commencer: nous commençons, je commençais — but nous commencions (before i, no cedilla).
• manger: nous mangeons, je mangeais — but nous mangions (before i, no e).

The 1990 rectifications

The reformed spelling (GR-40) simplifies the doubled class: every -eler / -eter verb may take è like acheter — j'amoncèle, il ruissèle, j'étiquète — except appeler, jeter and their compounds, which keep the double consonant. It also allows è in the futur of the é → è class: je préfèrerai. Both spellings are accepted in the DELF.

The errors to watch

If your first language is Russian

Russian spelling follows morphology — the root is written the same whatever the stress does (вода, воды). French spelling here does the opposite: it follows the sound, so the stem changes on paper when its vowel changes in the mouth. Learn these verbs by ear first: say j'achète [aʃɛt] and nous achetons [aʃtɔ̃], hear the vowel open and close, and the spelling follows.

The stems of every other verb — the families and their one, two or three stems — are on GR-44 (P50.verb-systems.14). The items below practise each class in the présent, the futur and the imparfait.

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