French grammar · Intermediate
Irregular -er Verbs in French: Aller, Envoyer, and the Almost-Regular Rest
French has exactly one genuinely irregular -er verb: aller. Everything else in -er keeps the standard endings and only adjusts its stem, which is why grammars usually treat envoyer, acheter, appeler, and préférer as almost-regular rather than irregular.
Je vais au marché, et j'envoie le colis en rentrant.
I'm going to the market, and I'll send the parcel on the way back.
What it is
Calling a verb irregular normally means its endings misbehave. By that test the -er group has one member: aller, which uses three unrelated stems in the present and a fourth in the future. Every other -er verb keeps -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent and merely rewrites part of its stem to protect a sound.
aller → je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont. — to go → I go, you go, he goes, we go, you go, they go.
How to spot it
Ask whether the endings are intact. If they are, the verb is regular and something in the stem is simply being spelled differently; if they aren't, you're looking at aller.
- Nous allons à la plage. — We're going to the beach. (aller: truly irregular)
- J'envoie une carte postale. — I'm sending a postcard. (envoyer: stem only)
- Elle achète du pain. — She's buying bread. (accent change only)
- Nous plaçons les chaises. — We're arranging the chairs. (spelling only)
This is good news: the largest verb group in French has essentially one exception, and you'll have learned it in your first week.
Irregular -er Verbs Quick Reference
What actually varies inside the -er group
| Verb type | Example | What changes | Endings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truly irregular | aller | three stems: vais / allons / vont | irregular in ils vont |
| Irregular future stem | envoyer, renvoyer | enverr- in the future | regular |
| Accent shift | acheter, mener, peser | e becomes è when stressed | regular |
| Doubled consonant | appeler, jeter, rappeler | l or t doubles when stressed | regular |
| é becomes è | préférer, espérer, répéter | é becomes è when stressed | regular |
| y becomes i | payer, nettoyer, essuyer | y becomes i before a silent ending | regular |
| Soft consonant kept | commencer, manger | ç or ge before a and o | regular |
Common Irregular -er Verbs Examples in French
The verbs that are usually filed under this heading:
Aller in the Present
- Je vais bien, merci.
- I'm fine, thanks.
- Tu vas où comme ça ?
- Where are you off to?
- On va au cinéma ce soir.
- We're going to the cinema tonight.
- Ils vont rentrer tard.
- They're going to get home late.
Ça va is built from this verb and is probably the most-used sentence in spoken French.
Envoyer and Its Family
- J'envoie le dossier ce matin.
- I'm sending the file this morning.
- Nous envoyons les invitations demain.
- We're sending the invitations tomorrow.
- Ils renvoient le formulaire signé.
- They're sending back the signed form.
- Je t'enverrai les détails.
- I'll send you the details.
The present is ordinary; only the future is unpredictable. Enverrai has a double r, like verrai and pourrai.
Stems That Shift Their Accent
- J'achète le journal chaque matin.
- I buy the paper every morning.
- Elle appelle sa sœur le dimanche.
- She calls her sister on Sundays.
- Nous préférons partir tôt.
- We'd rather leave early.
- Ils jettent les vieux papiers.
- They're throwing out the old papers.
The change happens in je, tu, il, and ils, and disappears in nous and vous. Those two forms keep the infinitive's spelling.
Stems That Protect a Sound
- Nous commençons à comprendre.
- We're beginning to understand.
- Nous voyageons souvent en train.
- We often travel by train.
- Je paie par carte.
- I'm paying by card.
- Il nettoie la cuisine.
- He's cleaning the kitchen.
Nothing about the pronunciation changes here. The spelling changes precisely so that it doesn't.
How the -er Exceptions Work
One verb is a genuine outlier. The rest follow a single logic: French rewrites a stem whenever an ending would otherwise change how it sounds.
Aller Has Three Present Stems
Vais, vas, va come from one Latin verb, allons and allez from another, and vont from a third. French merged them, and the result is the only -er verb whose forms can't be predicted from its infinitive.
Je vais, nous allons, ils vont.
I go, we go, they go.
va- / all- / vont.
Aller's Future Stem Is ir-
It's the shortest future stem in the language: j'irai, tu iras, il ira. The conditional uses the same stem, giving j'irais, so a single syllable covers two tenses.
J'irai en Bretagne cet été.
I'll go to Brittany this summer.
aller → ir- → j'irai.
Envoyer Is Regular Until the Future
In the present, envoyer follows the -yer rule and gives j'envoie, nous envoyons. Its future, however, is enverr-, which no rule predicts. Renvoyer inherits the same stem.
Nous vous enverrons une confirmation.
We'll send you a confirmation.
j'envoie, but j'enverrai.
The Stress Explains the Stem Changes
Endings -e, -es, and -ent are silent, so the stress lands on the stem and the vowel in it opens up. French marks that with a grave accent (j'achète, je préfère) or a doubled consonant (j'appelle, je jette). In nous and vous the ending is audible, so nothing changes.
Tu répètes la phrase, nous répétons ensemble.
You repeat the sentence, we repeat it together.
Silent ending, stressed stem, changed spelling.
Spelling Changes Are Not Sound Changes
Nous mangeons keeps an e and nous commençons takes a cedilla so that g and c stay soft before o. These verbs are not irregular at all: they're regular verbs written carefully.
Nous lançons le projet en septembre.
We're launching the project in September.
ç and ge before a and o.
Common Mistakes with Irregular -er Verbs
Incorrect: Je alle au travail en bus. — I go to work by bus.
Correct: Je vais au travail en bus. — I go to work by bus.
Aller looks like a regular -er verb and isn't. Its singular forms are built on va-, not on all-, which only appears in nous allons and vous allez.
Incorrect: Ils allent au restaurant. — They're going to the restaurant.
Correct: Ils vont au restaurant. — They're going to the restaurant.
The third-person plural is vont, one of the four verbs in French that take -ont in the present: sont, ont, vont, font.
Incorrect: J'envoierai le contrat lundi. — I'll send the contract on Monday.
Correct: J'enverrai le contrat lundi. — I'll send the contract on Monday.
Envoyer is the one -yer verb that doesn't build its future on the infinitive. Its stem is enverr-, with two r's, and payer or nettoyer offer no guidance here.
Incorrect: Nous achètons du fromage. — We're buying cheese.
Correct: Nous achetons du fromage. — We're buying cheese.
The grave accent appears only where the ending is silent. Nous and vous have audible endings, so the stem goes back to the spelling of the infinitive.
Aller and Envoyer Across the Tenses
Aller is worth conjugating in full, because it is both an ordinary verb and a piece of French grammar. Envoyer is here for its future stem, the one form that has to be memorised.
Aller in the indicative
The present is unpredictable; the imperfect, future, and compound past are all perfectly orderly once you know that the imperfect stem is all- and the future stem is ir-.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | vais | allais | irai | suis allé(e) |
| tu | vas | allais | iras | es allé(e) |
| il / elle / on | va | allait | ira | est allé(e) |
| nous | allons | allions | irons | sommes allé(e)s |
| vous | allez | alliez | irez | êtes allé(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | vont | allaient | iront | sont allé(e)s |
Aller takes être in the compound past, so the participle agrees: elle est allée, elles sont allées.
Aller in the subjunctive and the imperative
The subjunctive adds a fourth stem, aill-, which appears wherever the ending is silent. The imperative is short and used constantly.
| Pronoun | subjonctif | conditionnel | impératif |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | que j'aille | irais | — |
| tu | que tu ailles | irais | va |
| il / elle / on | qu'il aille | irait | — |
| nous | que nous allions | irions | allons |
| vous | que vous alliez | iriez | allez |
| ils / elles | qu'ils aillent | iraient | — |
The tu imperative is va, but it becomes vas before y: vas-y, go on.
Envoyer, where only the future is odd
The present follows the -yer rule (y becomes i before a silent ending) and the imperfect is completely regular. The future and conditional use enverr-.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | conditionnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | envoie | envoyais | enverrai | enverrais |
| tu | envoies | envoyais | enverras | enverrais |
| il / elle / on | envoie | envoyait | enverra | enverrait |
| nous | envoyons | envoyions | enverrons | enverrions |
| vous | envoyez | envoyiez | enverrez | enverriez |
| ils / elles | envoient | envoyaient | enverront | enverraient |
Nous envoyions in the imperfect has two i's: one from the stem, one from the ending. It looks wrong and is correct.
Aller as a Piece of Grammar
Aller is irregular partly because it works so hard. Besides meaning to go, it builds a tense, reports on health, and carries a set of fixed expressions.
The near future
Aller plus an infinitive is the everyday way of talking about what will happen. In conversation it has largely displaced the simple future for anything imminent or already arranged.
- Je vais te rappeler ce soir.
- I'll call you back tonight.
- Il va pleuvoir.
- It's going to rain.
- Nous allons déménager en juin.
- We're going to move house in June.
In the imperfect this becomes the past intention: j'allais partir, I was about to leave.
Health, fit, and suitability
Aller reports how someone is, whether clothes suit them, and whether an arrangement works. English uses three different verbs for these.
- Comment allez-vous ?
- How are you?
- Cette veste te va très bien.
- That jacket suits you very well.
- Mardi, ça vous va ?
- Does Tuesday work for you?
Ça va answers all three and is the single most flexible phrase in spoken French.
Fixed expressions
A handful of very common phrases are built on aller and don't decompose into their parts, so they're best met whole.
- Allons-y !
- Let's go!
- Ça va de soi.
- That goes without saying.
- Il y va de ta santé.
- Your health is at stake.
- Vas-y doucement.
- Take it easy.
S'en aller, to go away, is the pronominal cousin: je m'en vais, va-t'en.
Irregular -er Verbs FAQs
- Which -er verbs are irregular in French?
- Strictly speaking only aller, whose present tense uses three stems (je vais, nous allons, ils vont) and whose future stem is ir-. Envoyer is the runner-up: its present is regular but its future is enverrai. Everything else in -er keeps the standard endings.
- Is acheter an irregular verb?
- No. J'achète takes a grave accent because the ending is silent and the stem carries the stress, but the endings themselves are the normal -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. In nous achetons the accent disappears and the verb looks entirely ordinary.
- Why is aller irregular?
- Because it was assembled from three separate Latin verbs. Vais and vas descend from vadere, allons and allez from a form related to ambulare, and vont from a fourth source. French kept whichever form was most common in each person.
- What is the future of envoyer?
- J'enverrai, tu enverras, il enverra, nous enverrons, vous enverrez, ils enverront. The stem is enverr-, with a double r that is pronounced. Renvoyer follows it: je renverrai.
- Does aller take avoir or être in the past?
- Être, with agreement on the participle: je suis allé, elle est allée, ils sont allés, elles sont allées. Its pronominal form s'en aller does too: elle s'en est allée.