Verbs are an important part of any language, be it English or French. “-re” to French verbs is what “to” is to English verbs. In English, “to” is the infinite used before the verbs, and in French, “-re” is the infinitive ending for the verbs.
French Verbs
French verbs can be split roughly into 5 main types. The irregular, stem-changing, and regular French verbs can be classified into three types based on their endings. The common French words are classified into –ER,-IR, and –RE ending verbs.
Verbs are conjugated to express different tenses of the same verbs. When it comes to the third group of the regular “-re” verbs in French, they share the pattern irrespective of the moods or tenses. You have to remove the “-re” ending and replace it with a suitable ending based on the tense and the person you are looking for. (First-person, second person or a third person; present tense or past tense)
The irregular French verbs fall under this group of verbs. When the ending is removed, it gives you the stem or radical verbs.
Here are 15 common “-re” French verbs along with their English meanings and the stem form of the word in both languages.
| S. No | -RE Verbs | Stem Form | ||
| French | English | French | English | |
| 1 | Vendre | To sell | Vend | Sell |
| 2 | Repondre | To answer | Repond | Answer |
| 3 | Repandre | To spread; to scatter | Repand | Spread; scatter |
| 4 | Render | To return | Rend | Return |
| 5 | Pretender | To claim | Pretend | Claim |
| 6 | Perdre | To lose | Perd | Lose |
| 7 | Pendre | To hang, to suspend | Pend | Hang; suspend |
| 8 | Fondre | To melt | Fond | Melt |
| 9 | Étendre | To stretch | Etend | Stretch |
| 10 | Entendre | To hear | Entend | Hear |
| 11 | Descendre | To descend | Descend | Descend |
| 12 | Défendre | To defend | Defend | Defend |
| 13 | Attendre | To wait | Attend | Wait |
| 14 | Confondre | To confuse | Confond | Confuse |
| 15 | Correspondre | To correspond | Correspond | Correspond |
Conjugating “–re” Verbs
Conjugating the verbs mentioned above require you to drop the “re” and add the required pronoun and ending to change the tense of the stem verbs. Let’s take a deeper look into this.
Present Tense
In the words mentioned above, removing the “to” before the English stem verbs will give its present tense. However, the French stem verbs will have different endings depending on the pronouns used before the verbs.
Here is an example to make it easier to understand. Let’s look at how the -re verb “attendre” will change when different pronouns are used for present tense:
| Pronoun | Ending | Conjugated Stem Verb | English Version |
| j’ | -s | j’attends | I wait |
| Tu | -s | tu attends | You wait |
| il/ elle/ on | – | il attend / elle attend / on attend | He wait/ she wait/ one waits |
| Nous | -ons | nous attendos | We wait |
| Vous | -ez | vous attendez | You wait |
| ils / ells | -ent | ils attendent / ells attendent | They wait |
Notice how for English, the present tense of the stem verb stays the same but for in one case, but in French the endings differ based on the pronoun used before the verb.
Past Tense
In the verbs mentioned above, we use “ed” with the stem version of the verbs to get the past tense, but for “lost and “sell.”
For the French verbs given in the table above, the “-re” ending is replaced with “U.” “Vendre” becomes “Vendu”; “Descendre” becomes “Descendu” and so on. The pronouns added before the verb are similar to how they are used in the present tense.
Future Tense
For the English verbs mentioned in the table, you add the word “will ” before the stem version of the verb to get the future tense.
The “re” French verbs are conjugated, similar to how other verbs are conjugated to get the future tense, with one small difference. Instead of losing the entire “-re,” only the final “e” is dropped. The “r” stays, and the different endings are added to this version of the stem verb to get the future tense of the verbs.
Conclusion
Though the French verbs may sound complicated to conjugate, they follow the same style for all types of verbs. Understanding how the stem version of the verbs changes based on the pronoun used before the word is the key to successfully conjugating them. There are many more “-re” verbs apart from the ones mentioned above. However, they all follow the same rule when it comes to conjugating them.