French grammar · Beginner
Regular -re Verbs in French: The -endre Family and Its Silent Third Person
Regular -re verbs are the smallest of the three French conjugation groups. Remove the -re and add -s, -s, nothing, -ons, -ez, -ent, so vendre gives je vends, tu vends, il vend. The bare third-person singular is what makes this group instantly recognisable.
J'attends le bus depuis vingt minutes.
I've been waiting for the bus for twenty minutes.
What it is
This group is small, maybe sixty verbs, and almost all of them end in -endre or -ondre. Its distinguishing feature is that the third-person singular takes no ending at all: you cut the -re and stop. Il vend, il attend, il répond — the stem stands there on its own.
vendre → je vends, tu vends, il vend, nous vendons, vous vendez, ils vendent. — to sell → I sell, you sell, he sells, we sell, you sell, they sell.
How to spot it
Look for an infinitive in -endre or -ondre with a d before the ending. If the d is there and the verb isn't prendre or one of its compounds, you almost certainly have a regular -re verb.
- Elle attend son frère. — She's waiting for her brother.
- Nous répondons tout de suite. — We'll reply right away.
- Tu entends la musique ? — Can you hear the music?
- Ils perdent souvent leurs clés. — They often lose their keys.
Prendre also ends in -endre but is irregular: nous prenons loses the d entirely, and ils prennent doubles the n.
Regular -re Verbs Quick Reference
The present tense of three regular -re verbs
| Subject | Ending | vendre (to sell) | attendre (to wait) | répondre (to answer) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | -s | vends | attends | réponds |
| tu | -s | vends | attends | réponds |
| il / elle / on | — | vend | attend | répond |
| nous | -ons | vendons | attendons | répondons |
| vous | -ez | vendez | attendez | répondez |
| ils / elles | -ent | vendent | attendent | répondent |
Common Regular -re Verbs Examples in French
Regular -re verbs at work:
Waiting and Hearing
- J'attends une réponse.
- I'm waiting for an answer.
- Tu entends quelque chose ?
- Do you hear something?
- On attend depuis une heure.
- We've been waiting for an hour.
- Ils n'entendent rien d'ici.
- They can't hear anything from here.
Attendre already contains the idea of for, so no preposition follows: on attend le train, never on attend pour le train.
Buying, Selling, Losing
- Ils vendent leur appartement.
- They're selling their flat.
- Je perds toujours mes gants.
- I always lose my gloves.
- Elle rend les livres à la bibliothèque.
- She's returning the books to the library.
- Nous dépendons de leur accord.
- We depend on their agreement.
Rendre means to give back; it also builds rendre visite à quelqu'un, to pay someone a visit.
Answering and Defending
- Je réponds à ton message ce soir.
- I'll reply to your message tonight.
- Il défend toujours ses amis.
- He always defends his friends.
- Vous confondez les deux frères.
- You're mixing up the two brothers.
- Nous correspondons depuis dix ans.
- We've been writing to each other for ten years.
Répondre needs à before the person or thing answered: je réponds à la question, je lui réponds.
Going Down and Coming Back
- Je descends au prochain arrêt.
- I'm getting off at the next stop.
- Elle descend l'escalier doucement.
- She's going down the stairs slowly.
- Nous descendons les valises.
- We're bringing the suitcases down.
- Le prix descend chaque année.
- The price goes down every year.
Descendre takes être in the passé composé when it means to go down, and avoir when it takes an object: elle est descendue, elle a descendu la valise.
How Regular -re Verbs Work
The pattern is short enough to memorise in a minute; the difficulty is that its most distinctive form is the one with nothing in it.
Cut Two Letters, Add One
Remove the -re from the infinitive and the je and tu forms just take -s. Vendre gives vend-, so je vends and tu vends. The -s is silent, which means the two forms sound like the bare stem.
Je vends ma vieille voiture.
I'm selling my old car.
vendre → vend- + s.
The Third Person Takes No Ending
Il vend is the stem with nothing after it. This is unique to the group and it feels wrong to learners who expect every French verb form to carry a visible ending.
Il répond rarement au téléphone.
He rarely answers the phone.
il vend, il attend, il répond — nothing added.
The Plural Restores the Normal Endings
Nous, vous, and ils take the same -ons, -ez, -ent you already know. In ils vendent the d is pronounced, which is the clearest audible difference between il vend and ils vendent.
Ils attendent devant la porte.
They're waiting in front of the door.
The d is silent in the singular, audible in the plural.
The Past Participle Ends in -u
Replace -re with -u: vendu, attendu, répondu, perdu, entendu. Almost every verb in this group takes avoir, so the compound past involves no decision beyond the participle itself.
Nous avons attendu deux heures.
We waited for two hours.
attendre → attendu.
The Future Drops the Final E
The future and conditional build on the infinitive, but -re verbs lose their final e so the stem still ends in r: vendre gives vendr-, hence je vendrai and je vendrais.
Je vous répondrai demain.
I'll answer you tomorrow.
répondre → répondr- → je répondrai.
Common Mistakes with Regular -re Verbs
Incorrect: Il vends des fleurs au marché. — He sells flowers at the market.
Correct: Il vend des fleurs au marché. — He sells flowers at the market.
The third-person singular of a regular -re verb takes no ending. Learners add an -s by analogy with je vends and tu vends, since all three forms sound identical.
Incorrect: J'attends pour le train. — I'm waiting for the train.
Correct: J'attends le train. — I'm waiting for the train.
Attendre already means to wait for. The English preposition has no French equivalent here, and adding pour makes the sentence mean something closer to waiting in order to get the train.
Incorrect: Nous prendons le bus. — We're taking the bus.
Correct: Nous prenons le bus. — We're taking the bus.
Prendre only looks like an -endre verb. Its plural stem is pren-, without the d, and its third-person plural doubles the n: ils prennent.
Incorrect: J'ai vendré ma guitare. — I sold my guitar.
Correct: J'ai vendu ma guitare. — I sold my guitar.
The -é participle belongs to -er verbs. Regular -re verbs form their participle in -u: vendu, attendu, entendu, perdu, répondu.
Regular -re Verbs Across the Tenses
Once you have the stem, this group is remarkably uneventful. The imperfect and the plural present share the same stem, the future trims one letter, and the participle is always -u.
The Present
Three verbs from the -endre and -ondre families. Attendre begins with a vowel, so je becomes j' in the first person.
| Pronoun | vendre | attendre | perdre |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | vends | attends | perds |
| tu | vends | attends | perds |
| il / elle / on | vend | attend | perd |
| nous | vendons | attendons | perdons |
| vous | vendez | attendez | perdez |
| ils / elles | vendent | attendent | perdent |
Perdre keeps its d in writing throughout, even where it isn't pronounced: je perds sounds like pair.
Imperfect, Future, Conditional
The imperfect uses the plain stem attend-. The future and conditional use the infinitive minus its final e, attendr-, which is why every form in those two columns has an r before the ending.
| Pronoun | imparfait | futur simple | conditionnel |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | attendais | attendrai | attendrais |
| tu | attendais | attendras | attendrais |
| il / elle / on | attendait | attendra | attendrait |
| nous | attendions | attendrons | attendrions |
| vous | attendiez | attendrez | attendriez |
| ils / elles | attendaient | attendront | attendraient |
Attendais and attendrais differ by one letter and by one r in the sound. In fast speech they are easy to confuse.
The Compound Past
Most of the group takes avoir. Descendre is the exception you'll meet most often: it takes être when nobody moves anything but the subject.
| Pronoun | répondre (avoir) | descendre (être) |
|---|---|---|
| je / j' | ai répondu | suis descendu(e) |
| tu | as répondu | es descendu(e) |
| il / elle / on | a répondu | est descendu(e) |
| nous | avons répondu | sommes descendu(e)s |
| vous | avez répondu | êtes descendu(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | ont répondu | sont descendu(e)s |
With an object, descendre switches to avoir and the participle stops agreeing: elle a descendu les poubelles.
The -re Verbs That Only Look Regular
Three small groups sit right next to this pattern and get mistaken for it. Each one differs in exactly one place, which makes them easy to file away once you've seen the difference.
Rompre and its compounds take a -t
Rompre, interrompre, and corrompre follow the regular pattern everywhere except the third-person singular, where they add a -t instead of leaving the stem bare.
- Il rompt le silence.
- He breaks the silence.
- Elle interrompt la réunion.
- She's interrupting the meeting.
- Nous rompons avec la tradition.
- We're breaking with tradition.
Their stems end in -mp rather than -d, and French will not leave a form ending in mp, so the t appears.
Prendre is not in this group
Prendre, apprendre, comprendre, and surprendre look like -endre verbs but drop the d in the plural and double the n in the third-person plural. Their participle is pris, not prendu.
- Je prends le métro.
- I take the metro.
- Nous prenons notre temps.
- We're taking our time.
- Ils comprennent la question.
- They understand the question.
- J'ai compris.
- I understood.
This is the single most common misfiling in the group, because prendre is far more frequent than any genuinely regular -re verb.
Two verbs, two auxiliaries
Descendre, rentrer's cousin monter, and a few others switch between être and avoir. Without an object they take être and the participle agrees; with an object they take avoir and it doesn't.
- Elle est descendue en ville.
- She went down into town.
- Elle a descendu les cartons.
- She brought the boxes down.
- Nous sommes descendus à Lyon.
- We got off at Lyon.
The rule is about transitivity, not about meaning: if there's a direct object, avoir wins.
Regular -re Verbs FAQs
- What are the endings for regular -re verbs in French?
- Take off the -re and add -s, -s, nothing, -ons, -ez, -ent. Répondre gives je réponds, tu réponds, il répond, nous répondons, vous répondez, ils répondent. The empty third-person singular is what marks the group out.
- Why does il vend have no ending?
- Because the historical ending wore away and French never replaced it. The stem simply stands alone, and the same happens with il attend and il perd. Rompre is the one family that refuses to end in a bare stem and adds a -t: il rompt.
- Is prendre a regular -re verb?
- No. It shares the -endre spelling but loses the d in the plural (nous prenons), doubles the n in the third-person plural (ils prennent), and has an irregular participle, pris. Apprendre, comprendre, and surprendre behave the same way.
- How do I hear the difference between il attend and ils attendent?
- Listen for the d. In the singular it's silent, so il attend ends on a nasal vowel; in the plural it's pronounced, giving attendent an extra consonant. This one audible d does most of the work of distinguishing singular from plural in the whole group.
- How many regular -re verbs are there?
- Around sixty, and almost all are built on -endre or -ondre: vendre, attendre, entendre, descendre, rendre, perdre, répondre, confondre, correspondre. It's the smallest group and it takes no new members.