How to Conjugate “Re” Verbs in French

Practicing verb conjugations is one of the most important parts of foreign language learning. After all, no sentence is really complete if you leave the action out of it. French is a wonderfully expressive language and full of passion, but nothing beautiful is easy to conquer. French conjugation takes this principle to heart, and is peppered with both regular and irregular conjugations that require effort and practice to master. In this article, we will not touch on the irregulars, but we are going to talk about the regular French verbs that all share an “re” ending to their infinitive form, otherwise known as the regular verbs in the third French verb group.

As a brief reminder, regular French verbs are traditionally separated into the first group, ending in “er”, such as parler and manger (to speak, to eat). Second group verbs include those regular verbs ending in “ir”, such as finir (to finish). The third group of verbs include “re” infinitives, and of course, all the irregular verbs. To make such a list of irregular verbs would be a bit of a stretch, so for now, we’ll go over some key tips for regular “re” ending French verbs that will be useful to you as you continue learning and perfecting your French language skills in the French verb conjugation chart below.

Present Tense

The French language has several regular “re” verbs, and there is a pattern that you can follow and practice to get more comfortable using them and familiarizing yourself with the regular patterns. If you begin with the infinitive, such as included below using répondre, a simple formula shown in the verb conjugation chart below will allow you to practice conjugating regular French “re” verbs with ease in the present tense:

*You will notice that for the third person singular, you simply drop the “re” and add nothing else to complete the conjugation. Practice writing these conjugations here, but also do not forget that French words are not pronounced as they are written. Just because the endings change, does not mean that the pronunciation does! Some oral pronunciation practice will help you to incorporate these conjugations into your spoken French with accuracy.

PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

The passé composé is another very important French conjugation, and it also follows a predictable pattern for “re” verbs that you will be able to pick up with practice. Remember that this verb tense requires the use of an auxiliary verb, either “avoir” or “etre”. “RE” verbs usually use “avoir”, as you can see below in the verb conjugation chart: