Regular verbs : Present

French verbs have to be conjugated. This means that the endings will change according to the tense (present, future…) and the person (je, tu, il…).

The verbs ending in –er are very numerous in French.

To form the present tense of regular verbs ending in –er, one needs to keep the stem of the verb, cross out the - er ending and add the following endings:

• Je/J' : XXXXX-e

• Tu : XXXXX-es

• Il/Elle : XXXXX-e

• Nous : XXXXX-ons

• Vous : XXXXX-ez

• Ils/Elles : XXXXX-ent

Je (travailler) : Je travaill- + e = Je travaille. Nous (habiter) : Nous habit- + ons = Nous habitons.

You use J' instead of Je with verbs starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o ,u, y) or a silent 'h'. In French, 'y' is a vowel.

J'aime / J'habite.

For all the persons, except 'nous' and 'vous', the final syllable is silent, and only the stem is pronounced.

Je travaill-e / tu travaill-es / il travaill-e / ils travaill-ent

But:

Nous habit-ons / vous habit–ez

Habiter / travailler + à + place where we are.

Je travaille à Versailles. J'habite à Paris.