Present Tense-

Regular French E R Verbs-

We will now learn to describe in French several actions that are taking place in the present. We will begin with infinitives of regular verbs that end in E R. This is the largest group of French verbs, and a few examples are: parler, danser, étudier, habiter, aimer, rencontrer, and chanter. In English these verbs mean: to speak, to dance, to study, to live, to love, to meet and to sing. But what if we want to say or write, I speak, we dance, or you speak? This can be done quite easily in French.

When we indicate who is performing this action (I, you, we, they, and so on), we conjugate a verb. I, you, he, she, we, and they, are called subject pronouns, and the French always use these pronouns when conjugating verbs in order to clarify who is performing that action. Note the following examples: Je parle, tu danses, elle habite, nous aimons, vous rencontrez and ils chantent.

Here are the subject pronouns used to conjugate French verbs:

Subject Pronouns-	English Translation-
Je	I
Tu	you -- familiar form
Il, elle, on	he, she, one
Nous	we
Vous	you
Ils, elles	they-

Here is the conjugation of the verb danser:

Subject Pronouns-	Verb Form-
Je	danse-
Tu	danses-
Il, elle, on	danse-
Nous	dansons-
Vous	dansez-
Ils, elles	dansent-

Now, let us look at the conjugation of aimer:

Subject Pronouns-	Verb Form-
J'	aime -
Tu	aimes-
Il, elle, on	aime-
Nous	aimons-
Vous	aimez-
Ils, elles	aiment-

Did you notice that j e becomes j ' right before a verb that begins with a vowel or silent 'h'? Some examples of this include: j'aime, j'habite, j'adore and j'étudie.

Also, when the plural subject pronouns ils and elles are followed by a verb beginning with a vowel or silent 'h', they are linked to the following verb and the 's' which is normally silent is now pronounced like a 'z'. Listen to the following examples: ils aiment, ils habitent, elles étudient.