French Language
Irregular -RE Verbs
Irregular verbs are the bane of every French student's existence, but there's good news. There are some patterns in the irregularities - once you learn the conjugations for one verb in a group, you shouldn't have any trouble with the other verbs in that group. The bad news is that the majority of irregular verbs end in -RE, so there are a lot of patterns to learn.
There are seven kinds of -RE verbs
prendre and its derivatives
battre and its derivatives
mettre and its derivatives
rompre and its derivatives
verbs that end in -aindre, -eindre, and -oindre
completely irregular verbs (faire, connaître, etc.)
regular -RE verbs
1. The first group of irregular -RE verbs includes prendre and all of its derivatives (comprendre, etc).
The endings for these verbs are as follows:
Singular
Plural
je -s nous -ons
tu -s vous -ez
il - ils -ent
These verbs drop the d in the radical in the 1st and 2nd person plural forms and double the n in the 3rd person plural form.
PRENDRE
je prends nous prenons
tu prends vous prenez
il
elle prend ils
elles prennent
2. The second group of irregular -RE verbs includes battre and all of its derivatives (débattre, etc.)
The endings for these verbs are as follows:
je -s nous -ons
tu -s vous -ez
il - ils -ent
These verbs drop a t in the singular forms.
BATTRE
je bats nous battons
tu bats vous battez
il
elle bat ils
elles battent
3. The third group of irregular -RE verbs includes mettre and all of its derivatives (promettre, etc.)
These verbs are conjugated just like group 2 (the battre verbs) in the present tense, but have a different passé simple and past participle.
4. The fourth group of irregular -RE verbs includes rompre and its derivatives (corrompre, interrompre)
The endings for these verbs are as follows:
je -s nous -ons
tu -s vous -ez
il -t ils -ent
These verbs are conjugated exactly like regular -RE verbs with the single exception of the third person singular present tense, which adds a t after the stem.
ROMPRE
je romps nous rompons
tu romps vous rompez
il
elle rompt ils
elles rompent
5. The fifth group of irregular -RE verbs includes
craindre and all verbs that end in -aindre (plaindre, etc)
peindre and all verbs that end in -eindre (ceindre, etc.)
joindre and all verbs that end in -oindre (rejoindre, etc.)
The endings for these verbs are as follows:
je -s nous -ons
tu -s vous -ez
il -t ils -ent
These verbs drop the d in the root in all forms, and add a g in front of the n in the plural forms.
PEINDRE
je peins nous peignons
tu peins vous peignez
il
elle peint ils
elles peignent
6. Completely irregular -RE verbs: These verbs have unique or difficult conjugations that it would be nearly impossible to describe, so you have to memorize each one separately. Try working on one verb a day until you've mastered them all. Click on each verb for a table of its conjugations. Any derivatives conjugated the same way are listed under the conjugation table for each verb.
absoudre boire clore conclure
conduire confire connaître coudre
croire dire écrire faire
inscrire lire moudre naître
plaire rire suivre vivre