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Les verbes en -er — The Pattern That Unlocks Hundreds of Verbs
🔓 Les verbes en -er — The Pattern That Unlocks Hundreds of Verbs
Here is the good news: roughly 90% of all French verbs follow the same pattern — the -er pattern. Learn six endings and you can conjugate hundreds of verbs instantly. Whether you want to talk about listening to music, working at school, or eating at a restaurant, these endings will serve you again and again across every AQA task.
La conjugaison des verbes en -er
To conjugate a regular -er verb, remove the -er from the infinitive to get the stem, then add the correct ending.
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- In a writing task, use at least two different subject pronouns with -er verbs to show range — don't repeat je…je…je.
- Remember that écouter is transitive — you say j'écoute de la musique, NOT j'écoute à de la musique (no preposition needed in French, unlike in English "I listen to").
- For AO2 (communication), using aimer + infinitif to give opinions (j'aime regarder des films) is a quick, reliable structure.
- Examiners in the writing mark scheme reward variety — include a nous or ils form alongside your je forms.
❌ Common error: nous mange / nous regard / nous écoute
✓ Correct: nous mangeons / nous regardons / nous écoutons
Why it costs marks: The nous form always ends in -ons for regular -er verbs — no exceptions among this group (apart from the spelling change in -ger verbs). Forgetting the -ons ending is classified as a grammatical error in AO3 and loses accuracy marks. Examiners note this as one of the most frequent errors at Foundation tier.