L'infinitif

The French language is full of verbs with strange and convoluted conjugations. While this may seem daunting at first, it's actually not that complicated when you take the time to understand the basics of French conjugation.

Let's recall what a verb is.

A verb is the word that allows us to understand the action or situation described in a sentence. It is a word that is essential to the sentence (if we remove it, the sentence no longer makes sense) and is often found in the middle of the sentence (after the subject and before the object).

The problem is that this word often changes form depending on the subject (I, you, he, etc.) and the tense used (past, present, future, etc.). Therefore, we need a reference form, a neutral, unconjugated form, to be able to classify these verbs and find their definitions in the dictionary. The Infinitive

The infinitive is the neutral form of a verb, its original form, unconjugated, unconcorded, and untransformed. It is therefore the form we refer to when talking about an action out of context.

The main characteristic of an infinitive is that it has an -r ending (-er, -ir, -oir, -re). This is an essential characteristic because you can deduce the conjugation of a verb based on the ending of its infinitive.

The Three Groups

First group: verbs ending in -er

The regular and most numerous verbs in the French language (70% of all of the verbs).

The only exception: Aller (to go), which is a very special and irregular verb.

A note:

If you have to invent a new verb from a foreign word or a neologism, then you simply add -er to the end of the word: jogger, driver, dater, etc.

Second group: verbs ending in -ir

Regular and fairly common verbs in the French language (20% of all the verbs).

Two notes:

1. These verbs are often formed from an adjective (rougir, grandir, pâlir, etc.).

2. The particularity of this group is that we hear the "ss" between the root and the plural ending.

Third group: verbs ending in -OIR, -RE, -DRE, etc.

Irregular French verbs. Some of these verbs are very common and are therefore easy to remember in practice, through repetition; Others are simply very old verbs, reserved for literary and scholarly language, so it's not necessary to learn them to begin.

Three notes:

1. Some verbs in the third group have an infinitive ending in -ir (ouvrir, partir, etc.). They are in this group because their conjugations do not follow the "ss" sound rule as seen above.

2. Some verbs in the third group are so important in French that they deserve to be learned by heart (être, avoir, aller, venir, faire, prendre, mettre, etc.). Once this work is completed, you will be able to create many sentences using these few conjugations!

3. The third group is irregular, yes, but not without head or tail! The verbs are organized into categories, and once you've learned the key verbs, you will be able to easily memorize their derivatives. For example, all verbs derived from venir (devenir, venir, souvenir, advenir, etc.) are conjugated like venir, the same goes for verbs derived from mettre (remettre, démettre, soumettre, admettre, etc.).