Basic French Verbs Every Beginner Should Know

Most French sentences are built on a remarkably small set of verbs. Eight to ten verbs account for a huge share of all spoken French - and they are the ones you cannot avoid in any real conversation. Master these and the rest of fluency is mostly adding vocabulary and tenses on top of a structure you already own. This guide covers the most important French verbs, their present-tense conjugations, the popular phrases they appear in, and how to actually commit them to memory.

Why these verbs matter so much

Linguists who count word frequencies in spoken French keep finding the same pattern: a tiny number of verbs do most of the work. Être ("to be") and avoir ("to have") alone are part of every compound tense in the language - you cannot form the past tense without them. Aller ("to go") expresses the near future. Faire ("to do/make") appears in dozens of fixed expressions, from il fait beau (the weather is nice) to faire la cuisine (to cook). Learning these first is the highest leverage move a beginner can make.

1. Être - to be

The most important French verb, and the most irregular. You will use it in roughly every third sentence you speak.

• Je suis - I am
• Tu es - You are (informal)
• Il / Elle est - He / She is
• Nous sommes - We are
• Vous êtes - You are (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles sont - They are (m/f)

Common phrases: Je suis fatigué (I'm tired). C'est bon (It's good). Vous êtes d'où? (Where are you from?). Être also forms the past tense with around fifteen verbs of motion: Je suis allé (I went), Elle est partie (She left).

2. Avoir - to have

The second most important verb. Avoir forms most of the past tense in French, and it is used for age, hunger, thirst, and many other states that English expresses with "to be."

• J'ai - I have
• Tu as - You have (informal)
• Il / Elle a - He / She has
• Nous avons - We have
• Vous avez - You have (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles ont - They have

Common phrases: J'ai vingt ans (I'm twenty years old - literally "I have twenty years"). J'ai faim (I'm hungry - literally "I have hunger"). J'ai mangé (I ate). Il y a (there is / there are).

3. Aller - to go

Aller is the verb of motion, and it forms the near future tense (futur proche): aller + infinitive means "going to do something."

• Je vais - I go / I'm going
• Tu vas - You go (informal)
• Il / Elle va - He / She goes
• Nous allons - We go
• Vous allez - You go (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles vont - They go

Common phrases: Je vais à Paris (I'm going to Paris). Comment ça va? (How's it going?). Je vais manger (I'm going to eat). Allons-y! (Let's go!).

4. Faire - to do, to make

Faire appears in dozens of fixed expressions and is the all-purpose verb for activities, weather, and many idiomatic phrases.

• Je fais - I do / make
• Tu fais - You do (informal)
• Il / Elle fait - He / She does
• Nous faisons - We do
• Vous faites - You do (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles font - They do

Common phrases: Il fait beau (The weather is nice). Je fais la cuisine (I cook). Faire du sport (to exercise). Ne t'en fais pas (Don't worry).

5. Dire - to say, to tell

• Je dis - I say
• Tu dis - You say (informal)
• Il / Elle dit - He / She says
• Nous disons - We say
• Vous dites - You say (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles disent - They say

Common phrases: Qu'est-ce que tu dis? (What are you saying?). Ça veut dire... (That means...). Je veux dire (I mean).

6. Voir - to see

• Je vois - I see
• Tu vois - You see (informal)
• Il / Elle voit - He / She sees
• Nous voyons - We see
• Vous voyez - You see (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles voient - They see

Common phrases: Je vois (I see). On va voir (We'll see). À voir (Worth seeing).

7. Savoir - to know (a fact, how to do something)

French distinguishes between savoir (to know facts or skills) and connaître (to know people, places, things by acquaintance). Beginners get this wrong constantly; the trick is to remember that savoir is followed by an infinitive or a clause, connaître by a noun.

• Je sais - I know
• Tu sais - You know (informal)
• Il / Elle sait - He / She knows
• Nous savons - We know
• Vous savez - You know (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles savent - They know

Common phrases: Je sais (I know). Je ne sais pas (I don't know). Tu sais nager? (Do you know how to swim?).

8. Pouvoir - can, to be able to

• Je peux - I can
• Tu peux - You can (informal)
• Il / Elle peut - He / She can
• Nous pouvons - We can
• Vous pouvez - You can (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles peuvent - They can

Common phrases: Je peux vous aider? (Can I help you?). On peut y aller? (Can we go?). Tu peux le faire (You can do it).

9. Vouloir - to want

• Je veux - I want
• Tu veux - You want (informal)
• Il / Elle veut - He / She wants
• Nous voulons - We want
• Vous voulez - You want (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles veulent - They want

Common phrases: Je voudrais... (I would like... - the polite conditional). Qu'est-ce que tu veux? (What do you want?). Si tu veux (If you want).

10. Venir - to come

• Je viens - I come
• Tu viens - You come (informal)
• Il / Elle vient - He / She comes
• Nous venons - We come
• Vous venez - You come (formal/plural)
• Ils / Elles viennent - They come

Common phrases: Je viens de France (I come from France). Tu viens? (Are you coming?). Venir + de + infinitive = "just did something": Je viens de manger (I just ate).

How to actually memorise verb conjugations

Reading conjugation tables produces almost zero retention. What works is learning verbs inside short, useful phrases - "je vais" not in isolation but in "je vais à Paris," "je vais manger." This anchors the conjugation to a real context and gives you a retrieval cue. Spaced repetition then ensures each phrase comes back to you at the moment your memory is about to fade. After three weeks of daily ten-minute practice, the high-frequency conjugations become automatic - you stop thinking about them and just produce them.

“A verb is not learned when you can list its conjugations. It is learned when you reach for it without thinking, in a sentence you have never said before.”