Lesson 5: Regular Verbs

This may seem like a quick transition from last lesson's pronouns but you'll see how it ties in.

I'd like to introduce to you the French Regular Verb.

Now, in French there is only one form of a regular verb -- almost any verb whose infinitive ends in -er. If you've never heard of regular verbs:

Regular verbs, as opposed to irregular verbs, have a predictable conjugation pattern that applies to almost all verbs ending in -er (I can only think of one verb -- aller -- that ends in -er and doesn't fit this pattern). All you have to do is memorize the conjugation pattern and add it to the end of the verb. I'll explain this more in detail later.

For now, I'm going to give you a list of common regular verbs and I want you to notice how the endings are all the same.

Aimer = to love/to like
Chanter = to sing
Commencer = to begin
Cuisiner = to cook
Danser = to dance
Dessiner = to draw (pictures)
Manger = to eat
Marcher = to walk
Parler = to talk

These verbs are all shown in what is called the infinitive form. That is, they haven't been conjugated yet. If you were to look up a verb in the dictionary, this is the form you would see.