What does conjugation mean in French?

It means changing a verb's form to match its subject, its tense, and its mood. Chanter becomes je chante, nous chantions, or qu'il chante depending on what the sentence needs. Practically, it means choosing a stem and attaching an ending to it.

How do you conjugate a French verb step by step?

Identify the group from the infinitive ending, find the stem for the tense you want, then add the ending for your subject. For nous in the imperfect of finir: the stem from nous finissons is finiss-, the ending is -ions, giving nous finissions.

Why do I have to use the subject pronoun if the ending already says who?

Because most of the endings have gone silent. Je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent all sound the same, so the pronoun is the only thing a listener can hear. French keeps it for that reason, unlike Italian or Latin.

Which stems do I actually need to memorise?

Three per verb, at most: the je stem, the nous stem, and the future stem. Everything else is derived. For boire that's boi-, buv-, and boir-, plus the participle bu, and you can generate the whole verb.

Are conjugation charts worth memorising?

Reading them is worth more than reciting them. The useful habit is to notice which endings recur, since the imperfect and conditional share a set, the future endings are avoir, and every compound tense reuses the same participle.

French grammar · Beginner

What Is Conjugation in French? Stems, Endings, and How to Read a Table

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

Conjugating a French verb means splitting it into a stem and an ending, then choosing the ending that matches the person, the tense, and the mood you need. The stem says which verb and roughly when; the ending says who. Every French verb form is one of those two pieces attached to the other.

Je chante, tu chantais, il chantera : c'est le même verbe.

I sing, you used to sing, he will sing: it's the same verb.

What it is

Conjugation is the process of turning an infinitive into a form that fits a sentence. French does this by cutting the verb in two. The front half, the stem, identifies the verb and often the tense. The back half, the ending, identifies the person and number. Learning to conjugate is learning which pair to use where.

chanter → chant- + -ons = nous chantons. — to sing → sing- + we = we sing.

How to spot it

Find the boundary. In nous finissons the stem is finiss- and the ending is -ons; in vous chanterez the stem is chanter- and the ending is -ez. Once you can see the seam, an unfamiliar form usually decodes itself.

nous march-ons — we walk (stem march-, ending -ons)
vous march-iez — you used to walk (same stem, imperfect ending)
ils marcher-ont — they will walk (future stem marcher-)
j'ai marché — I walked (auxiliary plus participle)

Only compound tenses have two words. Everything else in French is one word carrying all the information at once.

Verb Conjugation Quick Reference

The pieces of a conjugated French verb

Piece	What it tells you	Example in nous parlerions
Stem	which verb	parl-
Tense marker	when, and which mood	-er- for future and conditional
Ending	person and number	-ions for nous
Auxiliary	compound tense, and voice	absent here; present in nous avons parlé
Participle	the lexical content of a compound tense	parlé in nous avons parlé
Pronoun	the subject, redundantly	nous

Common Verb Conjugation Examples in French

Conjugation in action, from the simplest case to the most involved:

One Stem, Six Endings

Je chante sous la douche.: I sing in the shower.
Tu chantes faux.: You sing out of tune.
Nous chantons ensemble.: We sing together.
Ils chantent en chœur.: They sing in unison.

Four of these six forms are pronounced identically. In speech the pronoun carries the information the ending carries in writing.

Same Ending, Different Stem

Nous chantions autrefois.: We used to sing back then.
Nous chanterions volontiers.: We'd happily sing.
Nous chantons maintenant.: We're singing now.
Nous chanterons demain.: We'll sing tomorrow.

The imperfect and the conditional share the ending -ions. Only the stem distinguishes them: chant- against chanter-.

Two Words Instead of One

J'ai chanté hier soir.: I sang last night.
J'avais chanté avant lui.: I had sung before him.
Je serai parti avant midi.: I'll have left before noon.
Elle est déjà arrivée.: She's already arrived.

In a compound tense, only the auxiliary is conjugated. The participle stays fixed, apart from agreement after être.

Endings That Signal Mood

Il chante bien.: He sings well. (indicative: a fact)
Je doute qu'il chante bien.: I doubt he sings well. (subjunctive: filtered)
Il chanterait bien s'il osait.: He'd sing well if he dared. (conditional)
Chante plus fort.: Sing louder. (imperative)

For -er verbs the indicative and subjunctive are spelled the same in four persons, which is why the difference is easy to miss.

How Conjugation Works in French

Five rules that between them account for almost every form you'll ever have to produce.

The Infinitive Ending Tells You Which Set to Use

-er verbs take -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. Regular -ir verbs take -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent. Regular -re verbs take -s, -s, nothing, -ons, -ez, -ent. Those three sets cover the great majority of French verbs.

Je marche, je finis, je vends.

I walk, I finish, I sell.

Three groups, three ending sets.

The Endings Repeat Across Tenses

French recycles heavily. The imperfect and the conditional use the same six endings. The future endings are the present tense of avoir. The subjunctive borrows the -er verb endings. There are far fewer endings in the language than there are tenses.

Je chantais, je chanterais.

I used to sing, I'd sing.

-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient, twice over.

The Nous Form Generates Three Other Parts

Take the nous form of the present, drop -ons, and you have the stem for the imperfect, the present participle, and most of the subjunctive. This works for every verb in French except être, including deeply irregular ones.

Nous buvons, je buvais, en buvant.

We drink, I used to drink, while drinking.

nous form minus -ons = a key stem.

The Future and Conditional Share One Stem

Both are built on the infinitive, or on an irregular stem ending in r. Once you know that pouvoir gives pourr-, you have both je pourrai and je pourrais without learning anything further.

Je pourrai venir, je pourrais venir.

I'll be able to come, I could come.

One stem, two tenses.

Compound Tenses Only Conjugate the Auxiliary

In j'avais fini, the tense information sits entirely in avais. Change it to aurai and you have the future perfect; change it to aurais and you have the conditional perfect. The participle is inert.

Nous aurons terminé avant ce soir.

We'll have finished before tonight.

Move the auxiliary, keep the participle.

Common Mistakes with Verb Conjugation

Incorrect: Nous somme prêts. — We're ready.

Correct: Nous sommes prêts. — We're ready.

The nous form always ends in -s in the present, whether it's -ons or the irregular sommes. Because the final s is silent, it disappears from writing easily.

Incorrect: Je vais finir hier soir. — I finished last night.

Correct: J'ai fini hier soir. — I finished last night.

Aller plus an infinitive points forward, so it can't describe a completed past event. A finished past action needs the passé composé.

Incorrect: Si j'aurais le temps, je viendrais. — If I had time, I'd come.

Correct: Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais. — If I had time, I'd come.

After si in a hypothesis, French uses the imperfect and puts the conditional in the other clause. Two conditionals in one sentence is a well-known error even among native speakers.

Incorrect: Nous avons parlés longtemps. — We talked for a long time.

Correct: Nous avons parlé longtemps. — We talked for a long time.

A participle after avoir doesn't agree with the subject. Agreement with the subject belongs to être: nous sommes partis.

Reading a Conjugation Table

These three tables demonstrate the whole system. The first shows the three ending sets, the second shows one stem across four tenses, and the third shows what happens when the auxiliary takes over.

The three groups in the present

Read across: each row is one person, each column one group. The -ir column is the only one that adds a syllable in the plural.

Pronoun	-er (parler)	-ir (finir)	-re (vendre)
je / j'	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

Nous and vous take -ons and -ez in all three groups, which makes them the two most reliable forms in the language.

One verb, four simple tenses

Chanter across the present, imperfect, future, and conditional. Only two stems are involved: chant- for the first two and chanter- for the last two.

Pronoun	présent	imparfait	futur	conditionnel
je / j'	chante	chantais	chanterai	chanterais
tu	chantes	chantais	chanteras	chanterais
il / elle / on	chante	chantait	chantera	chanterait
nous	chantons	chantions	chanterons	chanterions
vous	chantez	chantiez	chanterez	chanteriez
ils / elles	chantent	chantaient	chanteront	chanteraient

Column two and column four share their endings exactly. That pair of columns is worth reading aloud until the difference is automatic.

The compound tenses of one verb

Finir with avoir, in four compound tenses. The participle fini never changes; all four tenses come from conjugating avoir differently.

Pronoun	passé composé	plus-que-parfait	futur antérieur	conditionnel passé
je / j'	ai fini	avais fini	aurai fini	aurais fini
tu	as fini	avais fini	auras fini	aurais fini
il / elle / on	a fini	avait fini	aura fini	aurait fini
nous	avons fini	avions fini	aurons fini	aurions fini
vous	avez fini	aviez fini	aurez fini	auriez fini
ils / elles	ont fini	avaient fini	auront fini	auraient fini

Four tenses for the price of one participle. This is the best return on effort anywhere in French grammar.

Forms That Look the Same and Aren't

French conjugation produces a number of homophones and homographs. Knowing which ones exist stops you second-guessing yourself when a form looks wrong.

Four present-tense forms, one sound

For -er verbs, je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent are pronounced identically. In speech only the pronoun distinguishes them, which is why French keeps subject pronouns even though the endings technically make them redundant.

Je travaille, tu travailles, il travaille, ils travaillent.: I work, you work, he works, they work.
Elle arrive, elles arrivent.: She's arriving, they're arriving.
Il étudie, ils étudient.: He studies, they study.

With a vowel-initial verb the plural becomes audible through liaison: ils arrivent links the s.

The future and the conditional in the first person

Je parlerai and je parlerais differ by one letter and, in careful speech, by a slightly different vowel. In fast conversation they're often indistinguishable, and native speakers rely on context.

Je viendrai demain.: I'll come tomorrow. (a promise)
Je viendrais si je pouvais.: I'd come if I could. (a hypothesis)
J'aimerai ce film, j'aimerais le voir.: I'll love this film, I'd like to see it.

A si clause or a hypothetical context almost always means you want the conditional.

The imperfect and the subjunctive in nous and vous

For most verbs, que nous finissions and nous finissions are spelled identically, as are que vous parliez and vous parliez. Only the presence of que and a triggering expression tells you which is which.

Nous parlions de toi hier.: We were talking about you yesterday.
Il veut que nous parlions moins fort.: He wants us to speak more quietly.
Vous finissiez toujours en retard.: You always used to finish late.

This overlap is why the subjunctive feels invisible at first. It's often there without any visible marker at all.

Verb Conjugation FAQs

What does conjugation mean in French?: It means changing a verb's form to match its subject, its tense, and its mood. Chanter becomes je chante, nous chantions, or qu'il chante depending on what the sentence needs. Practically, it means choosing a stem and attaching an ending to it.
How do you conjugate a French verb step by step?: Identify the group from the infinitive ending, find the stem for the tense you want, then add the ending for your subject. For nous in the imperfect of finir: the stem from nous finissons is finiss-, the ending is -ions, giving nous finissions.
Why do I have to use the subject pronoun if the ending already says who?: Because most of the endings have gone silent. Je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent all sound the same, so the pronoun is the only thing a listener can hear. French keeps it for that reason, unlike Italian or Latin.
Which stems do I actually need to memorise?: Three per verb, at most: the je stem, the nous stem, and the future stem. Everything else is derived. For boire that's boi-, buv-, and boir-, plus the participle bu, and you can generate the whole verb.
Are conjugation charts worth memorising?: Reading them is worth more than reciting them. The useful habit is to notice which endings recur, since the imperfect and conditional share a set, the future endings are avoir, and every compound tense reuses the same participle.