20 Common French Regular Verbs To Master

Regular verbs in French are fantastic, they follow the rules and just make your life easy.

You only need to learn how to conjugate one, and then you can do them all, which means you can very quickly master a lot of French.

You just need to learn the infinitive version of the word, and then you use the rules to change it to suit for whatever situation you need it. 

This is a lot less stressful than the irregular verbs where it seems like every word has a different set of rules. 

In this list I’ve tried to only use commonly found verbs, ones that will show up all the time and ones that you can actually use daily. 

(If you have not already, you need to make sure you have read The French Present Tense For Beginners to make sure you understand how the verbs work and how to conjugate them)

Regular French Verbs Ending In -ER

These are the largest group of verbs and they are extremely easy to find in everyday speech. I’ve picked 10 here that I think you will be able to actually use daily, if not multiple times a day.

*I have just added the present tense below, but you should really learn these verbs across a number of different tenses. – (You can read more about – The Main French Tenses You Need To Master)

1. Parler – To Speak

As a learner or French you are probably going to explain to people how you can …or cannot speak French pretty often, so it’s always a good place to start. Even as you become more advanced this is still a word you will hear or say daily in general conversations.

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Parl +	-E	Je parle – I speak
Tu	Parl +	-ES	Tu parles – You speak
Il/Elle/On	Parl +	-E	Il/Elle parle – He/She speaks
Nous	Parl +	-ONS	Nous parlons – We speak
Vous	Parl +	-EZ	Vouz parlez – You speak
Ils/Elles	Parl +	-ENT	Ils/ells parlent – They speaks

2. Regarder – To Look

Being able to say “look” may seem strange, but just wait and see, this word will be appearing all the time in French. You sometimes don’t realise how often you say certain words in daily life, but knowing regarder will definitely be beneficial.

3. Écouter – To Listen

The same goes for Listen. This is one of those words you probably say multiple times a day and do not realise. It’s the type of word that will come up when you are using the past tense and telling stories, so make sure you learn it well.

4. Travailler – To Work

Sadly we all have to work, so you are probably going to hear this topic come up a lot in daily life whether you want to or not.

5. Donner – To Give

If you are around other people and speaking French, which hopefully you will be, at some point someone is going to asked to be given something by someone else, even if it’s as simple as giving them a drink, it’s still a good word to know and learn early on.    

6. Arriver – To Arrive

You are going to need this word in most social situations; you are going to have to explain to each other when you plan to arrive so you can meet at the right time. This is a very functional word in daily life.

7. Marche – To Walk

Walking is something we all do in some form or another every day, so it’s good to be able to actually talk about it.

8. Partager – To Share

This is a great word to know and while it may not be the most common word on this list, being able to have this in your tool box when you are speaking with people could be extremely important.

9. Voyager – To Travel

We all love to travel (hopefully to France) and as a visitor there you will probably end up talking about your travels so it probably will come up in conversations quite a lot.

10. Manger – To Eat

Bering able to say you want to eat is pretty important and is something you are going to hear or say multiple times a day, so it’s a great verb to learn early on.

However, this is verb is technically irregular, but only very slightly. Basically there are a couple of conjugations where it doesn’t quite follow the rules, but it’s so minor, that I think it’s still okay to class it as a regular verb.

The main example you are going to see most is the Nous mangeons where you can see the e is still there. So as long as you remember to spell it correctly in this one instance, you should be fine.

Regular French Verbs Ending In -IR

The –IR verbs are strange bunch to me, apparently there are only about 50 of them that are irregular, meaning the vast majority of the words in the group follow the regular rules, which is great.

But it’s not quite like that in reality. It seems that the words you actually need and want to use on a daily basis fall into that irregular category. These are verbs like Pouvoir, Vouloir, Savoir, which are all big verbs you are going to be using a lot.  

(If you read my article on – The 12 Most Common Irregular French Verbs you will see half of them are –IR verbs!)

This then means that all the other regular verbs in this group are quite obscure and probably things you are not really going to say very often.

This means you will see lots lists of regular -IR verbs with words like Abasourdir- To Stun or Abolir – To Abolish. There is nothing wrong with these words and its fine to know them, but they are not exactly common every day words.

Basically what I’m saying is I’ve had to scrape the barrel here to find some good words that you are going to be using often. There is still a few, but this is certainly a group where you need to be focusing on the irregulars.

11. Finir – To Finish

Finir is a great verb to know well, you are probably going to hear this multiple times a day, even if you are only saying it to explain you have finished you meal, that’s still a perfect reason to learn it. 

 

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Fin+	-IS	Je finis – I finish
Tu	Fin+	-IS	Tu finis – You finish
Il/Elle/On	Fin+	-IT	Il/Elle finit  – He/She finishes
Nous	Fin+	-ISSONS	Nous finissons – We finish
Vous	Fin+	-ISSEZ	Vouz finissez –  You finish
Ils/Elles	Fin+	-ISSENT	Ils/ells finissents  – They finishes

12. Choisir – To Choose

You choose multiple things a day, and so will the people around you, so it’s a great idea to be able to know how to verbalise this and you should learn Choisir very well.

13. Établir – To Establish

Okay so maybe this isn’t the most commonly used verb, but if you think about when you are telling stories, you can start by saying “Let me establish the facts – Permettez-moi d’établir les faits” and anyone you are speaking to will know they are in for a good story when you start it like that!

14. Remplir – To Fill

This is another verb that is maybe a little obscure, but you will find it is quite functional in daily life and you will see it enough times that you should make the effort to learn it early on.  

15. Reussir – To Succeed

This is great word to know to know when you are talking in the past tense and you are talking about anything. There is always going to be some sort of success to talk about whether it be in work, games, sport or just life in general.

Regular French Verbs Ending In -RE

The Last group of Verbs is the –RE group where again I’ve put one full example and you can then plug any of the other verbs into this table.

This is smaller group of verbs, but there are still plenty of great words you can learn.   

16. Vendre – To Sell

Okay, so maybe you will be doing more buying than selling in your daily life, but it is still an important to know Vendre as if you are telling anyone about what has been bought, you will need to have the word to explain to them how it was sold to you.

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Vend+	-S	Je vends – I sell
Tu	Vend+	-S	Tu vends – You sell
Il/Elle/On	Vend+	–	Il/Elle vend  – He/She sells
Nous	Vend+	-ONS	Nous vendons – We sell
Vous	Vend+	-EZ	Vouz vendez – You sell
Ils/Elles	Vend+	-ENT	Ils/ells vendent  – They sells

17. Atendre – To Wait

This is an extremely important word to know. You will probably have to ask people to “wait” while you remember something, or have to look up some other word on your phone.

This word lets whoever you are talking to, to give you a moment to get yourself sorted, which is extremely important when you are not that confident with French yet. 

18. Perdre – To Lose

Hopefully you will not need this word too often, but things get lost and to know how to explain this is pretty important.

It also of course can be used when talking about sport, which may be something you do a lot daily.  

19. Rendre – To Return

This is really one of those words where you don’t realise how many times you say it until you start really studying your conversations. Knowing how to say Rendre will serve you well in your French conversations, so it’s a good word to master early on.

20. Repondre – To Reply

This word is going to show up multiple times a day, even if you are talking to yourself you are probably going to be thinking about some emails or messages that you need to reply to so it’s a great word to know.

Conclusion

Hopefully you can find these 20 words useful in your daily life and can start using them right away.

They cover all 3 verb groups, so if you can learn these 20 every well, you will pretty much have learned how to deal with thousands of other verbs in the same way.

They really are easy when you get the hang of them, then all you need to do is focus your efforts on the irregular verbs.

You might also want to read – Three Very Common And Important French Verbs – Être, Avoir and Aller