How many irregular verbs are there in French?

Around three hundred, depending on how strictly you count verbs that merely adjust their spelling. The number that matters is much smaller: about twenty verbs cover most of what you'll hear, and être, avoir, aller, and faire alone account for a large share of all verb use.

What makes a French verb irregular?

A stem that changes where the infinitive doesn't predict it. Vouloir gives je veux but nous voulons, and nothing in the spelling of vouloir tells you that. The endings themselves are shared with regular verbs, apart from êtes, faites, dites, and the four -ont forms.

Which irregular verbs should I learn first?

Être and avoir, because every compound tense needs them; then aller and faire, which build the near future and dozens of expressions; then pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir, which let you talk about ability, wanting, obligation, and knowledge.

Are irregular verbs irregular in every tense?

No. Most are irregular only in the present and in their future stem. The imperfect is built from the nous form for every verb except être, and the compound tenses just need the participle, so a verb like boire is irregular in two places and predictable everywhere else.

Why are the most common verbs the most irregular?

Because frequency protects old forms. Regular patterns spread by analogy, but a verb you say hundreds of times a day is learned as a whole and never gets reanalysed. That's why être and avoir look nothing like their infinitives while a rare verb behaves impeccably.

French grammar · Intermediate

Irregular Verbs in French: Which Ones, and Why They Look That Way

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

An irregular French verb is one whose stem changes in ways the infinitive doesn't predict. There are roughly three hundred of them out of thousands of verbs, but they include the ones you use in almost every sentence: être, avoir, aller, faire, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir, venir, prendre.

Nous savons qu'il peut venir, mais il doit prévenir.

We know he can come, but he has to let us know.

What it is

Irregularity in French is almost never about the endings. The endings are shared across the language; what varies is the stem the endings attach to. An irregular verb is simply one that keeps more than one stem, usually because the old pronunciation pulled the forms apart before the spelling settled.

pouvoir → je peux, nous pouvons, ils peuvent, je pourrai. — to be able → I can, we can, they can, I'll be able.

How to spot it

Compare the je form with the nous form. If they share a stem, the verb is regular; if they don't, the verb is irregular and those two forms are the two stems you need.

Je veux, nous voulons. — I want, we want. (two stems)
Je dois, nous devons. — I must, we must. (two stems)
Je vois, nous voyons. — I see, we see. (two stems)
Je regarde, nous regardons. — I look, we look. (one stem: regular)

Frequency and irregularity go together in every language. The verbs you say most often are the ones that resist being tidied up.

Irregular Verbs Quick Reference

The irregular verbs worth learning first, by shape

Verb	je form	nous form	Future stem	Participle
être	suis	sommes	ser-	été
avoir	ai	avons	aur-	eu
aller	vais	allons	ir-	allé
faire	fais	faisons	fer-	fait
pouvoir	peux	pouvons	pourr-	pu
vouloir	veux	voulons	voudr-	voulu
devoir	dois	devons	devr-	dû
savoir	sais	savons	saur-	su
venir	viens	venons	viendr-	venu
prendre	prends	prenons	prendr-	pris

Common Irregular Verbs Examples in French

Irregular verbs doing what they do best, which is turning up everywhere:

The Two Auxiliaries

Je suis en retard.: I'm late.
Nous sommes cinq.: There are five of us.
Elle a vingt ans.: She's twenty.
Ils ont fini avant nous.: They finished before us.

Être and avoir are irregular twice over: as verbs in their own right and as the auxiliaries every compound tense is built on.

The Modal Group

Je peux t'aider si tu veux.: I can help you if you want.
Tu dois y aller maintenant.: You have to go now.
Nous savons où il habite.: We know where he lives.
Ils veulent tout changer.: They want to change everything.

Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir all shift their vowel: peux against pouvons, veux against voulons.

The -oir Verbs

Je vois ce que tu veux dire.: I see what you mean.
Nous recevons beaucoup de courrier.: We get a lot of post.
Il faut partir maintenant.: We have to leave now.
Elle doit rentrer avant minuit.: She has to be home before midnight.

Falloir exists only in the third person singular: il faut, il fallait, il faudra.

Movement and Handling

Je viens de rentrer.: I've just got back.
Tu prends quoi comme dessert ?: What are you having for dessert?
Nous mettons deux heures pour y aller.: It takes us two hours to get there.
Ils tiennent beaucoup à cette maison.: They're very attached to this house.

Tenir à means to be attached to something or to insist on it: je tiens à le faire moi-même.

How Irregular Verbs Work

The endings are shared property. What you're actually learning, verb by verb, is a small set of stems and where each one goes.

The Endings Are Almost Never the Problem

Across the whole language the present endings are -s, -s, -t and -ons, -ez, -ent, with an -e, -es, -e variant for the -er group. Only three verbs break the vous form (êtes, faites, dites) and only four break the ils form (sont, ont, vont, font).

Vous voulez un café ?

Would you like a coffee?

Irregular stem, standard endings.

Most Irregular Verbs Have Exactly Two Stems

One stem serves je, tu, il, and often ils; the other serves nous and vous. Devoir is dois- and dev-, savoir is sai- and sav-, écrire is écri- and écriv-. Two stems, six forms.

Je dois y aller, mais nous devons attendre Marie.

I have to go, but we have to wait for Marie.

je form + nous form = the present.

The Third-Person Plural Sometimes Takes a Third Stem

In pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, boire, and prendre the ils form has its own shape: peuvent, veulent, doivent, boivent, prennent. It follows the je stem in vowel quality but adds the consonant back.

Ils doivent partir tôt.

They have to leave early.

peux / pouvons / peuvent.

The Future and Conditional Share One Stem

Whatever an irregular verb does elsewhere, its future stem is fixed and always ends in r: ser-, aur-, ir-, fer-, pourr-, voudr-, saur-, viendr-. The conditional uses the same stem with imperfect endings, so learning it once covers both tenses.

Nous saurons demain.

We'll know tomorrow.

One stem, two tenses.

The Imperfect Is Regular for Every Verb but One

Take the nous form of the present, remove -ons, add the imperfect endings. Nous buvons gives je buvais, nous faisons gives je faisais. Être is the single exception, with ét-.

Je faisais la vaisselle quand tu as appelé.

I was doing the washing-up when you called.

nous form minus -ons, plus -ais.

Common Mistakes with Irregular Verbs

Incorrect: Ils peuvent pas venir, ils veulons rester. — They can't come, they want to stay.

Correct: Ils ne peuvent pas venir, ils veulent rester. — They can't come, they want to stay.

Pouvoir and vouloir share a pattern, so their ils forms are peuvent and veulent. Mixing in a nous ending is a common slip once the two verbs are being used together.

Incorrect: Je peux à venir demain. — I can come tomorrow.

Correct: Je peux venir demain. — I can come tomorrow.

Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir take a bare infinitive with no preposition. Adding à or de is a habit carried over from verbs like commencer à and essayer de.

Incorrect: Nous faisez la même chose. — We're doing the same thing.

Correct: Nous faisons la même chose. — We're doing the same thing.

Faire's irregular form is vous faites, not the nous form. Because faites is memorable, learners sometimes attach its oddity to the wrong person.

Incorrect: J'ai devu partir tôt. — I had to leave early.

Correct: J'ai dû partir tôt. — I had to leave early.

Devoir's participle is dû, with a circumflex in the masculine singular. The -u ending is right but the stem contracts, exactly as pouvoir gives pu and savoir gives su.

The Core Irregular Verbs in Full

These twelve verbs account for a startling share of everything anyone says in French. Learn these tables and most remaining irregular verbs will feel like variations on something you already know.

The four essentials in the present

Être, avoir, aller, and faire are the four most irregular verbs in the language, and between them they build tenses, questions, weather expressions, and idioms.

Pronoun	être	avoir	aller	faire
je / j'	suis	ai	vais	fais
tu	es	as	vas	fais
il / elle / on	est	a	va	fait
nous	sommes	avons	allons	faisons
vous	êtes	avez	allez	faites
ils / elles	sont	ont	vont	font

Three of these four have an irregular vous form and all four take -ont for ils. No other verbs in French do either.

The modal group in the present

Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir share a shape: an eu or oi vowel in the singular, ou or e in the plural, and a distinct third-person plural.

Pronoun	pouvoir	vouloir	devoir	savoir
je / j'	peux	veux	dois	sais
tu	peux	veux	dois	sais
il / elle / on	peut	veut	doit	sait
nous	pouvons	voulons	devons	savons
vous	pouvez	voulez	devez	savez
ils / elles	peuvent	veulent	doivent	savent

Puis-je exists as a formal alternative to est-ce que je peux, and it's the only place you'll see that form.

Movement, sight, and handling

Venir doubles its n, voir turns to y in the plural, prendre loses its d, and dire keeps an irregular vous form.

Pronoun	venir	voir	prendre	dire
je / j'	viens	vois	prends	dis
tu	viens	vois	prends	dis
il / elle / on	vient	voit	prend	dit
nous	venons	voyons	prenons	disons
vous	venez	voyez	prenez	dites
ils / elles	viennent	voient	prennent	disent

Participles: venu, vu, pris, dit. Only venir takes être.

The same verbs in the future

Here the irregularity collapses into a single syllable per verb. Once you have the stem, the endings are the ones every French verb uses.

Pronoun	être (ser-)	avoir (aur-)	pouvoir (pourr-)	venir (viendr-)
je / j'	serai	aurai	pourrai	viendrai
tu	seras	auras	pourras	viendras
il / elle / on	sera	aura	pourra	viendra
nous	serons	aurons	pourrons	viendrons
vous	serez	aurez	pourrez	viendrez
ils / elles	seront	auront	pourront	viendront

Swap these endings for -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient and you have the conditional of all four verbs.

Where the Irregularity Actually Lives

Three observations that shrink the workload considerably, because they tell you which forms carry information and which ones you can derive.

The nous form is the master key

For every verb in French except être, the imperfect, the present participle, and most of the subjunctive are built on the nous form of the present. Extract it once and three more parts of the verb fall out.

Nous buvons, je buvais, en buvant.: We drink, I used to drink, while drinking.
Nous prenons, je prenais, en prenant.: We take, I used to take, while taking.
Nous voyons, je voyais, en voyant.: We see, I used to see, while seeing.

Être breaks this and only this: nous sommes gives j'étais, not je summais.

The boot shape

Draw a line around je, tu, il, and ils in a conjugation table and you get a boot. Those are the forms with silent endings, and they are the forms that change stem. Nous and vous sit outside the boot and keep the infinitive's shape.

Je bois, tu bois, il boit, ils boivent.: I drink, you drink, he drinks, they drink.
Nous buvons, vous buvez.: We drink, you drink.
Je viens, nous venons.: I come, we come.

This is the same mechanism behind j'appelle against nous appelons: stress on the stem versus stress on the ending.

Irregular does not mean unpredictable in compound tenses

Once you have the past participle, every compound tense is regular: you conjugate avoir or être and leave the participle alone. One irregular participle buys you six tenses.

J'ai pu, j'avais pu, j'aurai pu.: I was able, I had been able, I'll have been able.
Il est venu, il était venu, il sera venu.: He came, he had come, he'll have come.
Nous avons dû partir.: We had to leave.

Dû takes a circumflex only in the masculine singular, to distinguish it from du. The feminine is due, the plural dus.

Irregular Verbs FAQs

How many irregular verbs are there in French?: Around three hundred, depending on how strictly you count verbs that merely adjust their spelling. The number that matters is much smaller: about twenty verbs cover most of what you'll hear, and être, avoir, aller, and faire alone account for a large share of all verb use.
What makes a French verb irregular?: A stem that changes where the infinitive doesn't predict it. Vouloir gives je veux but nous voulons, and nothing in the spelling of vouloir tells you that. The endings themselves are shared with regular verbs, apart from êtes, faites, dites, and the four -ont forms.
Which irregular verbs should I learn first?: Être and avoir, because every compound tense needs them; then aller and faire, which build the near future and dozens of expressions; then pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir, which let you talk about ability, wanting, obligation, and knowledge.
Are irregular verbs irregular in every tense?: No. Most are irregular only in the present and in their future stem. The imperfect is built from the nous form for every verb except être, and the compound tenses just need the participle, so a verb like boire is irregular in two places and predictable everywhere else.
Why are the most common verbs the most irregular?: Because frequency protects old forms. Regular patterns spread by analogy, but a verb you say hundreds of times a day is learned as a whole and never gets reanalysed. That's why être and avoir look nothing like their infinitives while a rare verb behaves impeccably.