The largest group of French verbs — well over 90% of all French verbs — end in -er in the infinitive (manger, parler, aimer, habiter, regarder) and are conjugated in the present tense with a completely predictable pattern. Take the infinitive, remove -er to get the stem, and add these endings: -e (je), -es (tu), -e (il/elle/on), -ons (nous), -ez (vous), -ent (ils/elles). So parler becomes: je parle, tu parles, il/elle/on parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent. Once you know this one pattern, you can conjugate hundreds of verbs correctly.
A critical pronunciation note: in the je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles forms, the ending is silent or nearly silent (-e, -es, -e, -ent are all pronounced the same way — essentially not pronounced at all beyond the stem). This means je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent all sound identical when spoken aloud, even though they're spelled differently. Only nous parlons and vous parlez sound distinctly different, because -ons and -ez are pronounced endings. This is very different from English, where verb endings for different subjects are either identical in speech and writing ('I walk, you walk, we walk') or clearly pronounced ('he walks').
A few -er verbs have small spelling adjustments to preserve pronunciation, and these are worth flagging early even though they're not full irregularities. Verbs like manger (to eat) and commencer (to begin) that end in -ger or -cer add an extra e or a cedilla in the nous form to keep the soft 'zh' or 's' sound: nous mangeons (not 'mangons'), nous commençons (with a cedilla, not 'commencons'). These are spelling conventions to protect pronunciation, not exceptions to the ending pattern itself.
Exemples
Je parle français avec mes amis.
I speak French with my friends.
Base -er conjugation: stem + -e.
Tu manges beaucoup de légumes.
You eat a lot of vegetables.
Stem + -es; sounds identical to 'je mange' when spoken.
Elle habite à Lyon.
She lives in Lyon.
Nous mangeons à sept heures.
We eat at seven o'clock.
Extra 'e' before -ons keeps the soft 'g' sound of manger.
Vous regardez la télévision le soir.
You watch television in the evening.
Ils aiment le fromage français.
They love French cheese.
On commence le dîner à huit heures.
We start dinner at eight o'clock.
Cedilla on 'commençons' would apply for 'nous'; 'on commence' uses the regular il/elle-style ending.
Je commande une pizza ce soir.
I'm ordering a pizza tonight.
Elles cuisinent ensemble le dimanche.
They cook together on Sundays.
Nous commençons le repas avec une salade.
We start the meal with a salad.
Cedilla (ç) added before -ons to keep the soft 's' sound of commencer.
Erreurs fréquentes
- Adding a pronounced ending to je/tu/il/ils forms as if they were as distinct in speech as they are in writing, when in fact -e, -es, -e, -ent are all silent.
- Forgetting the spelling adjustment for -ger and -cer verbs in the nous form (writing 'nous mangons' or 'nous commencons' instead of 'mangeons' / 'commençons').
- Using the infinitive form directly instead of conjugating (saying 'je manger' instead of 'je mange').
- Applying English 3rd-person-singular logic and only changing the verb for 'il/elle', leaving other persons in the infinitive or base form.
Pourquoi ça trompe les anglophones
- English regular verbs barely change at all across persons (I eat, you eat, we eat — only 'he eats' looks different), so French's six distinct written endings feel like unnecessary complexity even though most of them sound the same aloud.
- The silent endings mean spelling and pronunciation diverge sharply, which is disorienting for English speakers used to sounding out most letters they write.
- The spelling-only adjustments in -ger/-cer verbs (mangeons, commençons) look like irregularities but are purely there to preserve pronunciation — a concept (silent letters inserted for sound, not meaning) that's unfamiliar territory.