(Master the 75 Essential Verbs)
In this story, we discuss the 75 most common verbs in the French language. This will give you a solid understanding of the most essential verbs and their conjugations.
French has the following personal forms:
• Je (I)
• Tu (you - informal)
• Il/Elle (he/she)
• Nous (we)
• Vous (you - formal/plural)
• Ils/Elles (they)
Note: For il/elle and ils/elles, we use only il and ils in the examples. The conjugation is identical for both genders.
We now give a short example with the verb dormir (to sleep) in the present tense:
Je dors dans le lit. (I sleep in the bed)
Tu dors dans le lit. (You sleep in the bed)
Il dort dans le lit. (He sleeps in the bed)
Nous dormons dans le lit. (We sleep in the bed)
Vous dormez dans le lit. (You sleep in the bed)
Ils dorment dans le lit. (They sleep in the bed)
💡 Important Pattern: Notice how the stem changes from 'dorm-' to 'dor-' in the singular forms. This is typical for -ir verbs like dormir, partir, and sentir.
The endings of French verbs are often not pronounced:
• The 's' in dors is silent
• The 't' in dort is silent
• The 'ent' in dorment sounds like a simple [ɔʁm]
**This means that je dors, tu dors and il dort sound almost identical when pronounced!**
You also see this pattern with other verbs. Take for example pouvoir (can/to be able):
Ils peuvent faire cela. (They can do that)
The ending '-ent' in peuvent is not pronounced - you only hear [pœv]. This is a consistent pattern in French: the third person plural ends in -ent, but these letters are silent in pronunciation.
---
Now follow the 75 most important French verbs with their complete conjugations. Each verb is presented with six example sentences demonstrating all personal forms.
You have finished the story. Well done.
We have no questionnaire for this story yet. Stay tuned!
