Regular French verbs

"Regular" in French means the verb follows a fixed pattern, once you know the stem (the infinitive minus its ending) and the tense's formula, you can produce every form without memorization. There are three regular patterns, one per infinitive ending.

Each of these patterns has its own dedicated hub:

How the regular patterns extend to other tenses

Once you know the present, the rest of the tenses follow predictable formulas:

• Imparfait, take the nous form of the present, drop -ons, add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Works for all three groups: parlons → parl- → je parlais; finissons → finiss- → je finissais; attendons → attend- → j'attendais.
• Futur simple, start with the full infinitive (drop final -e on -re verbs) and add -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont: je parlerai, je finirai, j'attendrai.
• Conditionnel présent, same stem as futur, with imparfait endings: je parlerais, je finirais, j'attendrais.
• Subjonctif présent, take the ils form of the present, drop -ent, add -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent: parlent → parl- → que je parle; finissent → finiss- → que je finisse; attendent → attend- → que j'attende.
• Passé composé, auxiliary (avoir or être) + past participle. Regular past participles: -er → -é (parlé), -ir → -i (fini), -re → -u (attendu).

Notice the pattern: once you have the right stem for a tense, the endings are almost the same for every regular verb. Drill the stems, and the rest is mechanical.

What to learn next

• Irregular French verbs, the ~15% that don't follow the pattern, including être, avoir, aller, faire, prendre.
• French tenses chart, every tense with its endings and a worked example.
• Practice tool, drill the regular patterns against random verbs and tenses.