[Originally posted on 02/20/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by BastouXII]
A tip from middle school came back to me recently when I was trying to explain some rule that seemed complex to someone learning French. It gave me the idea to post them all under one subject, to serve as reference for everyone.
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This is to guess if the ending of your verbs makes sense with the subject. These are all the different possible endings for the 6 personal pronouns :
Je (1st person singular) : S-E-X-AI
Tu (2nd person singular) : S-X-E
<pre>Really easy : the e is ONLY possible with verbs from the first group (ending in -er in the infinitive, like "aimer" and "jouer") conjugated in the imperative tense (when giving orders, without the pronoun explicitly written : "Mange tes carottes", "Aime ton prochain"), that's it. NOWHERE else.
</pre>
Il, elle, on, impersonnal il (as in “il pleut”, 3rd person singular) : D-A-T-E-C
Nous (1st person plural) : S (mostly -ONS, but some times -ES)
Vous (2nd person plural) : EZ-ES
Ils, elles : ENT-ONT
These are valid for ALL tenses even the ones you won’t ever learn about.
Good tips, but as a French, when I wonder how I should write a conjugaison (yes, even French people sometimes forget their conjugaisons), I prefer to ask myself what group the verb I have to conjugate is from, and after, it’s very easy, since the verb from a same group has always the same ending (except the 3rd that is a bit a “holdall”, but even in this weird group, there’s obvious patterns that tell you how to write) Only my preference, I think the method they taught me at school is a bit simpler, but it’s maybe because I learnt it a long time ago. I’m sure your method, that is very creative, will help many learners who don’t like the “3 groups” method. Or maybe we can use both methods as complementary, the flaw I find in yours is that it gives only the very final ending.
Actually, it doesn’t replace the groups consideration at all, its purpose it to make it obvious if your final letter if off. And it has the advantage to apply to verbs of all forms.
The tip doesn’t mention it, you’ll learn it each time you’ll learn a new verb. But if you’re hesitating about two final letters, of which only one is in the list, you’ll know which one to choose.
so,
je + verb must end in “S”-“E”-“X”-or “AI” ;
tu + verb must end in “S”- or “E” ;
il, elle, on + verb must end in “D”- “A” -“T”-or “E” ;
nous + verb must end in “ONS” ;
vous + verb must end in “EZ” or “ES”
and ils, elles + verb must end in “ENT” or “ONT”
sorry to spell this out – that I am slow – but have I got this right now?
so if I look at a verb agit (to take action), I know that correct “congications / formations” are “il agit” “elle agit” and “on agit”
Yes the verb is agir, but if I was asked a written question, and I was trying to put a word I was given “agit” in a sentence, because I knew the if it ends in a “t”, and is not ending in a “ont” then I need to use a sentence such as “il agit” because of the rules stated above. This is me trying to use an example to ensure I have understood the principal.
Hi there, I have found this a most interesting rule, and one that I will be finishing a study on. (but it might take me a couple of weeks or so. These are my results from looking through my data base of a bit over 180 verbs, where I concentrate on irregular ones, and the higher frequency regular ones.. And I have noticed a couple of flaws in the above rules. Please point out where I am wrong. And also I will give you a more thorough report once I have completed my study….
- je endings are only “s” or “e”, except for
je ai , for avoir je veux , for vouloir
I found no je endings in the following verb for “x”
- tu endings for the verbs are overwhelmingly “s” the exceptions being: tu peux , for pouvoir tu veux , for vouloir tu vaux , for valoir
I found no ending for “e” for the verb following “tu”
- for ” il, elle, on”
I think this might be a rule: for ~er verbs , il/elle/on end in “e” ~re verbs , il/elle/on end in “e” or “t” or “d” ~ir verbs , il/elle/on end in “e” or “t”
EXCEPT for these 3 “il a” , “elle a” , “on a” , for the verb avoir il/elle/on vainc , for the verb vaincre il/elle/on convainc , for the verb convaincre
so the ONLY one ending in “a” is avoir, : “il a”, “elle a” , “on a” so rather than a rule – as this is the only exception, it would be better to memorize avoir – or you could get into trouble.
- the exception for nous is nous sommes , for être
every other one is “ons”
the vous rule for ending in “es” or “ez” seems correct, with “ez” being the most common.
or ills and elles most are “~ent”, but there are quite a few “~ont” as well. I noticed no other ending patterns.
*** NB – thank you for directing my research and learning into this area – ! AND I hope you do not take offence – because by you posting this – I have started researching it – and I am expanding my understanding of french verbs 🙂 And I look forward to developing a new rule or thumb – that I will post in duolingo, when I have reached some sort of conclusion.
You’re right about the -X ending for tu and the -C ending for il/elle/on, as well as -ES for nous. I’ve edited my post to add them. For the rest, you seem to be looking only at the present of indicative tense. Here is where the ones you didn’t find are :
- For the endings of je, look at the simple future and simple past tenses to see all the -AI endings. The -X endings are for most verbs ending in -oir at the infinitive.
- I’ve explained where to find -E endings for tu in the post : look for the present of imperative tense of verbs from the first group (ending in -ER at the infinitive).
- The -A ending for il/elle/on is easy to find in simple past and simple future, just like the -AI ending for je.
- Other cases of -ES ending for nous are, again, the simple past.
I didn’t realize you rules applied to ALL tenses. So we can set up rules for just the present tense, and then rules for all tenses. Initially learners only deal in present tense, which is why I am focused on that.
Duolinguists 