French grammar · Beginner
The French Present Tense: Endings, Irregular Verbs, and What It Covers
The French present tense (le présent) is one form doing the work of three English ones: je mange means I eat, I am eating, and I do eat. You build it by cutting the infinitive ending off and adding a set of endings that depend on whether the verb ends in -er, -ir, or -re.
Je travaille à Lyon depuis trois ans.
I've been working in Lyon for three years.
What it is
Le présent describes what is true now, what happens habitually, and — with a time expression — what has been going on since some point in the past. French has no separate progressive form, so the same six endings cover every shade of the English present.
Elle chante dans une chorale. — She sings in a choir. / She is singing in a choir.
How to spot it
Identify the infinitive ending first, because it decides the endings. Verbs in -er take -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent; verbs in -ir usually take -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent; verbs in -re take -s, -s, -, -ons, -ez, -ent.
- Nous habitons près du parc. — We live near the park. (-er)
- Tu réussis toujours. — You always succeed. (-ir)
- Ils perdent patience. — They're losing patience. (-re)
- Il fait froid ce matin. — It's cold this morning. (irregular faire)
The je, tu, il, and ils forms of an -er verb all sound identical. Only the written ending tells them apart, which is why French relies so heavily on the subject pronoun.
Present Tense Quick Reference
The three regular present-tense patterns
| Subject | parler | finir | vendre |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | parle | finis | vends |
| tu | parles | finis | vends |
| il / elle / on | parle | finit | vend |
| nous | parlons | finissons | vendons |
| vous | parlez | finissez | vendez |
| ils / elles | parlent | finissent | vendent |
Common Present Tense Examples in French
What the present tense is used for:
What Is True Right Now
- Je cherche mes lunettes.
- I'm looking for my glasses.
- Il pleut.
- It's raining.
- Nous attendons le bus.
- We're waiting for the bus.
- Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?
- What are you doing?
English would use am, is, or are plus -ing for all of these. French simply uses the present.
Habits and General Truths
- Je prends le métro tous les jours.
- I take the metro every day.
- L'eau bout à cent degrés.
- Water boils at a hundred degrees.
- Elle ne mange pas de viande.
- She doesn't eat meat.
- On se voit le samedi.
- We see each other on Saturdays.
Adverbs like souvent, toujours, and rarement usually sit straight after the conjugated verb.
Since When, With Depuis
- J'apprends le français depuis deux ans.
- I've been learning French for two years.
- Elle vit ici depuis 2019.
- She's been living here since 2019.
- Ça fait une heure que j'attends.
- I've been waiting for an hour.
- Il y a longtemps que je te connais.
- I've known you for a long time.
This is the biggest divergence from English, which insists on a perfect tense here. French keeps the present because the action is still going on.
The Very Near Future
- Je reviens tout de suite.
- I'll be right back.
- On part dans cinq minutes.
- We're leaving in five minutes.
- Mon train arrive à dix heures.
- My train gets in at ten.
- Tu viens avec nous demain ?
- Are you coming with us tomorrow?
As in English, a scheduled or imminent event can take the present tense without any risk of confusion.
How the French Present Tense Is Built
Remove the infinitive ending to get the stem, then add the endings for that verb group. Most of the irregularity in French lives in the stem, not in the endings.
Cut the Infinitive to Find the Stem
Parler minus -er leaves parl-, finir minus -ir leaves fin-, vendre minus -re leaves vend-. Everything you add afterwards attaches to that stem, and for regular verbs the stem never changes.
Nous regardons un film.
We're watching a film.
Stem plus ending.
-ir Verbs Split Into Two Families
The large group behaves like finir and inserts -iss- in the plural: nous finissons. A smaller but very common group behaves like partir, dropping the final consonant of the stem in the singular: je pars, nous partons.
Je dors mal, mais nous dormons bien à la campagne.
I sleep badly, but we sleep well in the countryside.
finir adds -iss-, partir loses a consonant.
The Third Person Singular of -re Verbs Has No Ending
Where -er verbs add -e and -ir verbs add -t, regular -re verbs add nothing at all: il vend, elle attend, on répond. The d of the stem is simply left exposed.
Elle répond à tous les courriels.
She answers every email.
il vend, with nothing after the d.
Spelling Shifts Keep the Sound Steady
Verbs in -ger and -cer change their spelling before the -ons ending so the consonant keeps its soft sound: nous mangeons, nous commençons. Verbs like acheter and appeler change their stem in every form except nous and vous: j'achète but nous achetons.
Nous voyageons souvent, mais je voyage rarement seul.
We travel often, but I rarely travel alone.
The spelling protects the pronunciation.
The -ent Ending Is Silent
Ils parlent is pronounced exactly like il parle. This is why French almost never drops its subject pronouns, and why listening for number in the third person means listening for liaison and context rather than for the verb ending.
Ils arrivent ce soir.
They're arriving this evening.
-ent is written, not heard.
Common Mistakes with Present Tense
Incorrect: Je suis mangeant une pomme. — I'm eating an apple.
Correct: Je mange une pomme. — I'm eating an apple.
French does not build a progressive with être plus a participle. The present participle mangeant never combines with être to make a tense, so the plain present has to carry the meaning.
Incorrect: J'ai habité à Paris depuis cinq ans. — I've lived in Paris for five years.
Correct: J'habite à Paris depuis cinq ans. — I've lived in Paris for five years.
If the situation is still true, French uses the present with depuis. The passé composé here would mean you no longer live there.
Incorrect: Nous mangons ensemble ce soir. — We're eating together tonight.
Correct: Nous mangeons ensemble ce soir. — We're eating together tonight.
Verbs in -ger keep the e before -ons so that the g stays soft. The same logic gives nous commençons with a cedilla for verbs in -cer.
Incorrect: Ils finent leurs devoirs. — They're finishing their homework.
Correct: Ils finissent leurs devoirs. — They're finishing their homework.
Verbs of the finir family insert -iss- in all three plural forms. Only the partir family drops straight from the stem to the ending.
The Irregular Present-Tense Verbs You Cannot Avoid
These verbs are irregular precisely because they are used constantly. Learning them as complete paradigms is faster than trying to derive them.
The Four Cornerstones
Être, avoir, aller, and faire appear in nearly every sentence, either on their own or as building blocks for other tenses.
| 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 |
Nous faisons is pronounced as though it were written fesons, and vous faites is one of only three French verbs whose vous form does not end in -ez.
The Modal Verbs
Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, and savoir all shift their stem between the singular and the nous and vous forms.
| Pronoun | pouvoir | vouloir | devoir | savoir |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | 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, but je peux is what you will hear.
Other High-Frequency Irregulars
Prendre, venir, voir, and dire follow patterns shared by whole families of verbs, so each one you learn unlocks several more.
| Pronoun | prendre | venir | voir | dire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | prends | viens | vois | dis |
| tu | prends | viens | vois | dis |
| il / elle / on | prend | vient | voit | dit |
| nous | prenons | venons | voyons | disons |
| vous | prenez | venez | voyez | dites |
| ils / elles | prennent | viennent | voient | disent |
Prendre covers apprendre and comprendre; venir covers devenir and revenir; dire gives you interdire and prédire, whose vous forms are regular in -disez.
Three Places the French Present Surprises English Speakers
In each of these, French keeps the present where English reaches for another tense.
Depuis, ça fait, il y a … que
For an action that started in the past and is still going on, French uses the present. English uses the present perfect, so the two languages simply disagree here.
- Je t'attends depuis vingt minutes.
- I've been waiting for you for twenty minutes.
- Ça fait trois jours qu'il ne dort pas.
- He hasn't slept for three days.
- Il y a des années que je ne fume plus.
- I haven't smoked for years.
Once the action has stopped, French switches to the passé composé: j'ai attendu vingt minutes, I waited twenty minutes.
The present as a future
A timetable, an arrangement, or anything about to happen can go in the present, especially when a time expression makes the timing obvious.
- On se retrouve à huit heures.
- We're meeting at eight.
- Je pars en Italie la semaine prochaine.
- I'm off to Italy next week.
- Le film commence dans dix minutes.
- The film starts in ten minutes.
This overlaps with the futur proche. Je pars demain and je vais partir demain are both natural.
The historical present
Narratives, summaries, and headlines often put past events in the present to make them feel immediate. It is extremely common in film synopses and in spoken storytelling.
- En 1789, le peuple prend la Bastille.
- In 1789 the people storm the Bastille.
- Alors il se lève et il sort sans rien dire.
- So he gets up and walks out without a word.
In writing this is a stylistic choice; in speech it is simply how anecdotes are told.
Present Tense FAQs
- How do you conjugate the present tense in French?
- Take the stem by removing -er, -ir, or -re from the infinitive, then add the endings for that group. Parler gives je parle, nous parlons; finir gives je finis, nous finissons; vendre gives je vends, nous vendons.
- Does French have a present progressive like English?
- No. Je lis covers both I read and I am reading. If you need to stress that something is under way, you can say je suis en train de lire, but that is an optional expression rather than a tense.
- Why is depuis used with the present tense?
- Because the action has not finished. J'habite ici depuis dix ans means the living is still going on, so French treats it as present. English chooses a perfect tense for the same situation, which is why the sentence looks mistranslated at first.
- Why do je parle and ils parlent sound the same?
- The endings -e, -es, and -ent are all silent, so four of the six forms of an -er verb are pronounced identically. French compensates with obligatory subject pronouns, and in the plural you often hear the liaison instead: ils arrivent sounds like ilz-arrive.
- Which French verbs are irregular in the present tense?
- The ones you use most: être, avoir, aller, faire, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir, prendre, venir, voir, and dire. Learn those twelve as whole paradigms and the great majority of remaining verbs follow one of the three regular patterns.