Present of the verbs ending with -er

1. To conjugate the present time, it is necessary to take away the -er part from the infinitive.

marcher → march-

1. Then, we add those endings :-e ; -es ; -e ; ons ; -ez ; ent

je marche

tu marches

elle, il, on marche

nous marchons

vous marchez

elles, ils marchent

Exceptions :

• With the verbs that have a -g in the last syllable, like manger (to eat), we keep the -e with nous.*

je mange

tu manges

elle, il, on mange

→ nous mangeons

vous mangez

elles, ils mangent

• The irregular verb aller (to go).

je vais

tu vas

elle, il va

nous allons

vous allez

elles, ils vont

*Why is there an « e » in “mangeons” ? (Intermediate learners)

In French, the letter /g/ can have two sounds : [ʒ], as in giraffe, et [g], as in gateau. It depends of the letter that comes after the /g/.

– /g/ + a, o, u : pronunciation [g]. Gateau, gorille, gui.

– /g/ + e, i, y : pronunciation [ʒ]. Gelée, giraffe, gymnastique.

If we don’t add an /e/ to “mangeons”, the pronunciation would be incorrect. The “e” is a way to specify that the letter /g/ has to be said : [ʒ]. The /e/ is not pronounced in any way, it is only an indication about the /g/.