Irregular present

Nine verbs you can't avoid: Most French verbs end in -er, -ir or -re and follow a tidy pattern. But the most common verbs of all are irregular — their present-tense forms must be learned by heart. Nine of them do the heavy lifting in everyday French: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), faire (to do/make), venir (to come), pouvoir (can/to be able to), vouloir (to want), devoir (must/to have to) and prendre (to take). Master these nine and you can already say who you are, what you have, where you go, and what you can, want or must do.

être

to be — identity, description, age-helper («j'ai … ans» uses avoir, not être!)

avoir

to have — possession, age, and the helper for the passé composé

aller

to go — movement, and the helper for the near future (« je vais manger »)

faire

to do / to make — activities, weather, sport, chores

venir

to come — « je viens de Paris » (origin), « je viens de manger » (just did)

pouvoir / vouloir / devoir

can / to want / must — the three modal helpers, each followed by an infinitive

prendre

to take — transport, food and drink (« je prends le bus », « je prends un café »)

Why these matter for marks: These verbs appear in almost every sentence you'll write. Getting « je suis », « j'ai », « je vais » right — and not confusing them — is the difference between fluent French and the classic beginner slips. The good news: each verb has just six forms, and the patterns repeat enough that you can chunk them.

All nine, conjugated: Here are the six present-tense forms of each verb. Read down each column — the je / tu / il forms often rhyme, and pouvoir, vouloir, devoir share the same endings (-x, -x, -t in the singular). Notice that venir and prendre double or change a letter in the «ils» form (viennent, prennent).

Spot the patterns: Three shortcuts: (1) pouvoir / vouloir / devoir all go -x, -x, -t in the singular (peux/peux/peut, veux/veux/veut, dois/dois/doit). (2) The «vous» forms are usually -ez — except the three star irregulars vous êtes, vous faites, vous dites. (3) venir and prendre double their consonant only in the «ils» form: viennent, prennent.

Each verb's job: Knowing the forms is half the battle; the other half is reaching for the right verb. Some jobs trip up English speakers because French uses a different verb than English does — most famously age («j'ai 16 ans», literally I have 16 years) and the near future («je vais manger», I'm going to eat).

The three modals take an infinitive: pouvoir, vouloir and devoir are followed by a second verb in the infinitive (no «to»): « Je peux venir. » (I can come.) « Je veux partir. » (I want to leave.) « Je dois travailler. » (I must work.) Never conjugate the second verb — « je veux étudie » is wrong; it must be « je veux étudier ».

All nine verbs in one paragraph: Here's a short, original description of a school morning, built one sentence at a time. It uses all nine irregular verbs correctly — see if you can spot each one. Read it for meaning first, then tap Voir la traduction for the English or 🔊 to hear it.

Steal this frame to describe your day: Notice the workhorses: être for who you are, avoir for your age, prendre for transport, aller for where you go, faire for activities, venir for origin, and devoir / vouloir / pouvoir for what you must, want and can do. Build your own day-in-the-life the same way and you'll use every key verb naturally.

The slips anglophones make: Most mistakes come from translating English word-for-word. English says I am 16, but French says I have 16. English puts «to» before the second verb, but after a French modal the infinitive stands alone. And the «vous» forms êtes / faites break the usual -ez rule. Compare the right version with the typical mistake.

Three rules to lock in: Before you write, check: (1) Age, hunger, cold → avoir, never être. (2) After pouvoir / vouloir / devoir / aller, the next verb is an infinitive with no «à» or «to». (3) The «vous» star forms are vous êtes and vous faites (and vous dites) — not «vous étez» or «vous faisez».