Tongue of Fire

"And [the apostles] saw what appeared to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit enabled them." - Acts 2:3-4

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Lesson 1.3: Conjugation and the Present Tense

Consider the following words: am, is, are, and be. They look and sound completely different from each other, but if you think about it, don’t they actually mean the same thing?

Well, according to linguistics (the formal study of language), those four words are just different forms of the exact same word: to be. The difference between them is not what they mean, but when they are used: “am” is used after I, “is” is used after he/she/it, “are” is used after other pronouns, and “be” is used after auxiliary verbs such as “can”.

That’s conjugation: changing the form of a verb to fit the context. When you conjugate a verb, you convert it into a form that fits the subject or situation you’re talking about, even though the verb’s meaning doesn’t change. As demonstrated above, English uses conjugation, and French does, too. It’s more complicated in French than in English, but the rules shouldn’t be too hard to understand.

To conjugate a French verb, you need to start with the infinitive, which is the default, non-conjugated form of the verb. Infinitives are the verb forms that you’ll find in dictionaries or in the Tongue of Fire curriculum. English infinitives start with “to”, and French infinitives end in one of three endings: “er”, “re”, or “ir”.

Example: parler (to speak); vendre (to sell); finir (to finish)

Then, you need to decide what tense you want. Verb tense refers to when in time an action occurs.

Examples: present (I do), present continuous (I am doing), past (I did), present perfect (I have done), future (I will do)

In this lesson, we will learn the French present tense, which can actually translate to either the English present or the English present continuous tense. That means that “I ___” and “I am ___ing” are expressed in the exact same way in French.

Example: je parle (I speak; I am speaking) Example: tu fais (you do; you are doing)

Then, you should choose the right person and number. In linguistics, “person” refers to who is performing the action: “first person” means the speaker is performing the action, “second person” means the listener is, and “third person” means someone else is. “Number” refers to whether the subject is singular or plural.

That means there are six possible person-number combinations:

First person singular First person plural
Second person singular Second person plural
Third person singular Third person plural

But each combination actually goes with a familiar pronoun, as follows:

I We
You (singular) You (plural, or y'all)
He/she/it They

And then, if you translate those pronouns to French, you get:

Je Nous
Tu Vous
Il/elle Ils/elles

Remember that table: we’ll use it to organize all of our conjugations.

Conjugating -er verbs

To conjugate an -er verb (a verb ending in “er”) in the present tense, remove the -er, take the piece that’s left over (called the stem), and add the right ending for the pronoun you’re using. Here are the endings for -er verbs:

Je: -e Nous: -ons
Tu: -es Vous: -ez
Il/elle: -e Ils/elles: -ent
Example: parler (to speak)
Je parle (I speak) Nous parlons (we speak)
Tu parles (you speak) Vous parlez (you speak, plural)
Il/elle parle (he/she/it speaks) Ils/elles parlent (they speak)

Here’s what it those conjugations would look like in a sentence:

Example: Je parle français. (I speak French.) Example: Vous parlez trop vite. (You’re speaking too quickly.) Example: Nous parlons ensemble. (We’re speaking together.) Example: Le médecin parle avec moi. (The doctor is speaking with me.) Example: Les enfants parlent des choses différentes que les adultes. (Children talk about different things from adults.)

Most estimates say that around 90% of all French verbs are -er verbs, so congratulations: you can now conjugate 90% of French verbs!

Conjugating -re verbs

Conjugating -re verbs is almost the same: just remove the -re and add a different set of endings. The endings for -re verbs are:

Je: -s Nous: -ons
Tu: -s Vous: -ez
Il/elle: [nothing] Ils/elles: -ent
Example: vendre (to sell)
Je vends (I sell) Nous vendons (we sell)
Tu vends (you sell) Vous vendez (you sell, plural)
Il/elle vend (he/she/it sells) Ils/elles vendent (they sell)

Conjugating -ir verbs

For -ir verbs, just remove the -ir and add a different set of endings:

Je: -is Nous: -issons
Tu: -is Vous: -issez
Il/elle: -it Ils/elles: -issent
Example: finir (to finish)
Je finis (I finish) Nous finissons (we finish)
Tu finis (you finish) Vous finissez (you finish, plural)
Il/elle finit (he/she/it finishes) Ils/elles finissent (they finish)

Irregular verbs

Those three patterns will help you conjugate the vast majority of verbs. However, some verbs are irregular, which means that they do not follow the standard pattern for their verb ending. Many of the most useful verbs are irregular, so it’s important to learn their forms separately from the regular verb patterns.

Example: être (to be)
Je suis (I am) Nous sommes (we are)
Tu es (you are) Vous êtes (you are, plural)
Il/elle est (he/she/it is) Ils/elles sont (they are)
Example: avoir (to have)
J’ai (I have) Nous avons (we have)
Tu as (you have) Vous avez (you have, plural)
Il/elle a (he/she/it has) Ils/elles ont (they have)

Bordering vowels: a French speaker’s worst nightmare

Notice how the first form of avoir is j’ai, not “je ai”. That brings us to an important recurrent theme in French: bordering vowel sounds between words are considered awkward, and there are several rules in place to help us avoid them.

One such rule is that, if a short grammatical word (like a pronoun or article) ends in a vowel sound and the following word begins with a vowel sound, they should be combined with an apostrophe. That's why the first form of avoir is j'ai.

Example: “le avion” becomes l’avion (the airplane) Example: “ce est” becomes c’est (this is, that is, or it’s) Example: frigo âgé (old fridge) does not become “frig’âgé” because frigo is a noun

The formal vous

“You” always translates to vous when it’s plural, but it can also translate to vous when it’s singular if it’s also formal. “Formal” in linguistics refers to any time you want to add a level of respect, distance, or professionalism to your language. If your relationship to the listener requires formality, then you should refer to them as vous instead of tu and use the correct conjugations for vous, even if you’re only speaking to one person. If you’re not sure whether to call someone tu or vous, err on the side of caution and use vous.

Example, addressing a stranger: Vous parlez trop vite. (You’re speaking too quickly.) Example, addressing a friend: Tu parles trop vite. (You’re speaking too quickly.) Example, addressing a teacher: Vous savez comment faire ça, non ? (You know how to do this, right?) Example, addressing a classmate: Tu sais comment faire ça, non ? (You know how to do this, right?)

In short, always use vous for “you” unless you’re talking to one peer or familiar person, in which case use tu.

And that’s all you need to know to use conjugation in the present tense! It may seem like a lot now, but conjugation will get easier with practice, and soon it will feel natural to you. Tongue of Fire has a Conjugation page where you can practice conjugating the verbs you’re learning in all six forms. Now that you know how to conjugate, feel free to use that page as much as you’d like!

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