List of the french first group verbs

The french first group verbs are the verbs ending in -er. This is the largest class (90% of french verbs). French verbs ending in -er inflect somewhat differently from other verbs. Between the stem and the inflectional endings that are common across most verbs, there may be a vowel, which in the case of the -er verbs is a silent -e- (in the simple present singular), -é or -ai /e/ (in the past participle and the je form of the simple past), and -a- /a/ (in the rest of simple past singular and in the past subjunctive). In addition, the orthographic -t found in the -ir and -re verbs in the singular of the simple present and past is not found in this conjugation, so that the final consonants are -Ø, -s, -Ø rather than -s, -s, -t.

The conjugation table of the first group follow the conjugation of the verb aimer. The endings for the conjugation of the french first group verbs are regular (even if the stems are not always regular).

Endings for the conjugation of the french first group verbs

• INFINITIVE : -er
• INDICATIVE
  • Present :-e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent
  • Imperfect : -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
  • Simple Future : -erai, -eras, -era, -erons, -erez, -eront
  • Simple Past : -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent
• SUBJUNCTIVE
  • Present : -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent
  • Imperfect : -asse, -asses, -ât, -assions, -assiez, -assent
• CONDITIONAL
  • Present : -erais, -erais, -erait, -erions, -eriez, -eraient
• IMPERATIVE
  • Present : -e, -ons, -ez
• PARTICIPLE
  • Present : -ant
  • Past : -é, -és, -ée, ées

Compound tenses

Conjugations for the different French verb tenses can be divided into two categories: simple and compound. Simple tenses have only one part (je suis) whereas compound tenses have two: an auxiliary verb and the past participle (j'ai été). The auxiliary verb is always either avoir or être.
There are 8 compound tenses based on the conjugation of the auxiliaries in the 8 simple tenses added to the past participle:

• auxiliary in present indicative + past participle of main verb = present perfect indicative (passé composé de l'indicatif)
• auxiliary in imperfect indicative + past participle of main verb = pluperfect indicative (plus-que-parfait de l'indicatif)
• auxiliary in simple past indicative + past participle of main verb = past perfect indicative (passé antérieur de l'indicatif)
• auxiliary in simple future indicative + past participle of main verb = future perfect indicative (futur antérieur de l'indicatif)
• auxiliary in present subjunctive + past participle of main verb = past subjunctive (passé du subjonctif)
• auxiliary in imperfect subjunctive + past participle of main verb = pluperfect subjunctive (plus-que-parfait du subjonctif)
• auxiliary in present conditional + past participle of main verb = past conditional (conditionnel passé)
• auxiliary in present imperative + past participle of main verb = past imperative (impératif passé)

List of the french first group verbs