INTRO TO
CONJUGATION
“How to make your verb
match your subject”
Target, or Objective:
- To understand what it means to
conjugate a verb
- To know what an infinitive is
- To be able to conjugate a French
“-er” verb for the six subject pronouns
(Je, Tu, Il/Elle,
Nous, Vous, Ils/Elles)
You will be successful if you can:
- Describe what it means to
conjugate a verb
and
- Conjugate a regular –er verb
What does it mean to
conjugate a verb?
-What experiences have you
had in English class?
change
It means to ___________
the form of the verb to
match
___________
the subject.
For example…
We’ve already learned the verb
être -“to be”- and its conjugation
Je suis
Tu es
Il est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils sont
I am
You are
He is
We are
You all are
They are
For most verbs in English, though, the
forms don’t change very much
I
speak
You speak
He speaks
… but in French:
Je
parle
Tu
parles
Il
parle
We speak
Nous parlons
You all speak
Vous parlez
They speak
Ils
parlent
But don’t panic!
-- The endings are pretty consistent !
-
Most verbs are regular
-
There are only 3 types of regular verbs
-
-
-ER verbs
-IR verbs
-RE verbs
Once you learn the endings for a verb type,
you can apply those endings to ALL the verbs
of that type.
For example…
parle
parles
parle
parlons
parlez
parlent
Parler
is a regular –ER verb
Every other regular
–ER verb
is conjugated
with the same exact
endings !
There are LOTS of -er verbs
(just a few here)
all conjugated with the same endings!
comparer
commander
continuer
décider
désirer
habiter
chercher
trouver
fermer
garder
persuader
regretter
travailler
…
What does it mean … to be an “–ER verb” ?
-
The INFINITIVE ends in
–ER
(as in PARLER)
What is an INFINITIVE ?
-
An INFINITIVE is the BASIC
UNCHANGED version of the verb.
-
-
It’s the form found in the French dictionary.
It translates in English as “TO _______”
(ex: PARLER means “TO speak”)
So…
How do you CONJUGATE an –ER verb ?
-- You start with the INFINITIVE
PARLER
STEP 1:
You take off the –ER ending to find
the STEM.
STEP 2:
You ADD the appropriate ending
to match your subject.
It’s sort of like a train engine
“UN-HOOKING” a car and “HOOKING” on another one.
“Je parle” is how to say “I speak.”
For the other subject pronouns …
“Tu parles” = “You speak.”
“Il parle” = “He speaks.”
“Nous parlons” = “We speak.”
“Vous parlez” = “You all speak.”
“Ils parlent” = “They speak.”
Looking at them all together:
-
Je parl e
Nous parl ons
Tu parl es
Vous parl ez
Il parl e
Ils
parl ent
And there’s a
SONG!
Je parle
Tu parles
Il parle
Nous parlons
Vous parlez
Ils parlent
(to the tune of
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm”)
-e,
-es,
-e,
-ons,
-ez,
-ent
Did we reach our target?
- Do we understand what it means to
conjugate a verb?
- Do we know what an infinitive is?
- Do we understand how to conjugate
PARLER and other –er verbs for the
six subject pronouns?
(…once we memorize the endings?)
(Je, Tu, Il/Elle,
Nous, Vous, Ils/Elles)