French has a healthy number of irregular verbs to challenge your memory as you learn the language (although there are more irregular verbs in English).
You can make your life easier by observing certain patterns, which act as shortcuts.
Endings
The endings of most irregular verbs follow a pattern similar to that for '-re' verbs:
| · the 'je' and 'tu' forms will mostly end
in an 's' (with some verbs ending in an 'x') · the 'il, elle, on' form will mostly end in a 't' (unless the stem ends in a 'd', in which case nothing more is added · the 'nous' form will always end in 'ons' (except for être) · the 'vous' form will always end in 'ez' (except for être, faire, dire) · the 'elles, ils' form will mostly end in 'ent' (with just a few verbs ending in 'ont) |
Patterns of irregular endings
| je | -s (-x) | nous | -ons |
| tu | -s (-x) | vous | -ez |
| elle, il, on | -t (-d) | elles, ils | -ent |
Note
The 'x' in the 'je' and 'tu' forms will only come after a 'u' (je peux, tu veux), although not all 'u's are followed by an 'x'. (Think of the way adjectives and nouns ending in 'u' take an 'x' instead of an 's' in the plural (beau: beaux; cheveu: cheveux).)
Stems
The stems of irregular verbs change because of the way the endings are pronounced.
Many all irregular verbs have two versions of the stem:
| · one version to be used with endings that
are pronounced (i.e., the plural forms) · another version to be used with endings that are not pronounced (i.e., the singular forms) |
| je | vois | nous | voyons |
| tu | vois | vous | voyez |
| elle, il, on | voit | elles, ils | voient |
Some irregular verbs have three versions of the stem:
| · one version to be used with endings that
are pronounced (i.e., the 'nous' and 'vous' forms)
· another version to be used with endings that are not pronounced, but which have a silent vowel (i.e., the 'ils, elles' form) · another version to be used with endings that are not pronounced, and which do not have a silent vowel (i.e., the singular forms) |
| je | veux | nous | voulons |
| tu | veux | vous | voulez |
| elle, il, on | veut | elles, ils | veulent |
(The reason for these changes goes back several centuries. In medieval
French, there used to be an 'l' in every form of the verb. But somewhere
along the way people stopped pronouncing final consonants, and since the
'l's were no longer pronounced, people stopped writing them too. Coming
between two vowels, the 'l's in the plural have never stopped being pronounced.
The vowel sound changed in all forms of the singular as well as the third-person
plural because it consists of only one syllable, unlike the 'nous' and
'vous' forms.
Unfortunately, the rules of written French were never regularized: in some verbs (such as 'prendre') the unpronounced consonant is still written ('je prends'), whereas in others (such as 'pouvoir') it is not ('je peux').)
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