Verbs ending in -er form the largest group of French verbs — the "first group" (premier groupe). Unlike avoir and être, these verbs are regular: once you learn the pattern with one verb like parler, you can conjugate hundreds of others the same way, including aimer, regarder, jouer, and travailler.
1. How to conjugate -er verbs
Drop the -er from the infinitive to get the stem, then add the ending for each subject.
| Je regarde la télé. | I'm watching TV. |
| Elle danse tous les mardis. | She dances every Tuesday. |
| Nous adorons les dessins animés. | We love cartoons. |
| Les enfants jouent dans le jardin. | The children play in the garden. |
2. The #1 trap — most forms sound identical
The endings -e, -es, and -ent are written but not pronounced. That means je parle, tu parles, and ils parlent all sound exactly the same out loud — only nous and vous sound different.
3. Spelling-change verbs: -cer and -ger
A few -er verbs tweak their spelling in the nous form only, purely to keep the pronunciation consistent. Verbs ending in -cer add a cedilla (ç) before -ons, and verbs ending in -ger add an extra e before -ons.
| Nous commençons à midi. | We start at noon. (commencer → commençons) |
| Nous mangeons au restaurant. | We eat at the restaurant. (manger → mangeons) |
4. Conjugation — present tense (model: parler)
| je parle | I speak |
| tu parles | you speak (informal) |
| il / elle / on parle | he / she / one speaks |
| nous parlons | we speak |
| vous parlez | you speak (formal / plural) |
| ils / elles parlent | they speak |