Three regular verb families in the present
The present (le présent) covers now, general truths and habits. Regular verbs form three families by infinitive ending: -er (parler → je parle, nous parlons), -ir 2nd group (finir → je finis, nous finissons), and -re (vendre → je vends, il vend). Two traps: the -re il/elle form has NO ending (never il vende), and 2nd-group -ir verbs insert -iss- in the plural (nous finissons, not nous finons).
être, avoir, aller, faire: core irregulars
Four verbs are used constantly and are fully irregular — learn them by heart. être: suis, es, est, sommes, êtes, sont. avoir: ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont. aller: vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont. faire: fais, fais, fait, faisons, faites, font. être/avoir are the perfect auxiliaries (1.4), and aller + infinitive makes the near future (je vais manger). Watch vous êtes and vous faites, often wrongly regularised to étez/faisez.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
-re verbs: no ending for il/elle/on
Regular -re verbs (like vendre, attendre, répondre) have NO ending in the il/elle/on form: il vend, elle attend, on répond — never il vende or il vends. Candidates over-generalise the -er/-ir endings and add an -e or -s that does not belong. The bare stem IS the correct form for that one person.
general FL trap
Echoing the vous form instead of using je
A role-play question often uses vous: Préférez-vous le foot? The answer must be re-conjugated to je, not copied → Je préfère..., NOT je préférez (copies the vous ending) or je préférais (slides into the imperfect). Copying creates ambiguity about who is speaking and when, and blocks the top mark. Find the infinitive, then conjugate fresh for je.
s22/w22/s23/w23 Speaking (vous echoed for je, every sitting)
Subject-verb number mismatch
The verb ending must match the subject's grammatical NUMBER, not its meaning: les transports est pratiques ✗ → les transports sont pratiques (transports is plural in French). Reverse error: le règlement sont juste ✗ → est. Collective nouns are singular: le personnel (staff) takes est, not sont. Check the noun's number before choosing the ending.
w23 42 Q3(b) (les transports est); w22 41 Q3(b) (règlement sont); w22 42 Q3(b) (le personnel as plural)
être vs avoir when describing a person
être (to be) and avoir (to have) are not interchangeable when you describe a person: elle a timide ✗ → elle est timide (a characteristic → être + adjective); il est les yeux bleus ✗ → il a les yeux bleus (possession/feature → avoir + noun). Age uses avoir too: il a quinze ans. Learn it verb-by-verb, not by translating English "to be".
w22 41 Q2 Task 1 (elle a timide; il est les yeux bleus)
Dropping -iss- in the finir plural
2nd-group -ir verbs (like finir, choisir, réussir) insert -iss- before the PLURAL endings: nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent — not nous finons. Candidates who treat finir like an -er verb drop the infix and produce forms that do not exist. The singular persons (je finis, tu finis, il finit) carry no -iss-.
general FL trap
Regularising vous êtes / vous faites
The vous form of an irregular verb is not automatically -ez. être → vous êtes (NOT étez) and faire → vous faites (NOT faisez) are two of the most-regularised errors. aller and avoir DO take -ez (vous allez, vous avez), which makes the two exceptions easy to forget. Learn êtes and faites as fixed irregular forms.
general FL trap
Myth: every verb takes the -er endings
Many assume all French verbs share one set of endings. Two failures: vendre treated like -er → il vende (but -re verbs take no ending: il vend); finir treated like -er → nous finons (but -ir verbs insert -iss-: nous finissons). A related belief regularises être/avoir: vous êtez/faisez for vous êtes/faites. No shortcut: each irregular is unique.
Find the infinitive, then the person
For any present-tense answer, find the INFINITIVE first (strip the ending back to -er/-ir/-re or an irregular), decide the subject you actually need — a vous question needs a je answer — then apply that family's ending. Never just copy the ending in front of you.
Check subject-verb number before finishing
Before finishing, check subject-verb number: a plural subject (les transports) needs a plural ending, a singular subject (le règlement) a singular one. Collective nouns like le personnel are grammatically singular, so le personnel est, not sont.
Keep the present; do not slip tense
Keep the time frame consistent. If a marker signals now or a habit (d'habitude, tous les jours), stay in the present — do not slip into the imperfect or perfect mid-answer, and watch for a tense change within a sentence (je les adorais / maintenant ils m'ennuient).
The present tense (le présent) is the tense you reach for most often: what is happening now, what is generally true, and (with a time marker such as tous les jours, d'habitude, le lundi) what happens habitually. French has only ONE present tense form for English's two ("I speak" and "I am speaking" are both je parle).
Every regular verb belongs to one of three families, identified by its infinitive ending:
| Person | -er (parler) | -ir 2nd group (finir) | -re (vendre) |
|---|
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