Re conjugation French: stop mixing up vendre and prendre

Re conjugation in French follows one tidy pattern for a family of verbs built like vendre, attendre and répondre, and a short list of exceptions that look the same on the page. This page gives the endings, the tenses in brief, a list of common -re verbs you can hear, and the five irregular verbs learners mix up with them. For the rules behind all conjugation, read How to conjugate French verbs. For the -ir family, see Ir verb conjugation French.

What is re conjugation in French?

Re conjugation in French means conjugating a verb whose infinitive ends in -re. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) counts every verb in -re as irregular, and says that in traditional grammar they belong to the third group [1].

The pattern below is predictable even though the OQLF’s name for the set is irregular [1]. Verbs such as vendre, attendre, perdre and répondre follow it. Prendre, mettre, faire, dire and être do not.

How do you do re verb conjugation in French?

For re verb conjugation in French, take the stem (the verb without -re) and add -s, -s and no ending in the singular, then -ons, -ez, -ent in the plural. This is the OQLF’s pattern for irregular verbs whose stem ends in d [2][3]. It is the same plural as for every regular verb [2].

Tap the round button to hear the infinitive.

The OQLF’s list of -dre verbs that keep their d in the singular includes rendre, mordre, pondre, coudre and moudre [3]. Vendre follows the same logic.

Why does the il form of -re verbs lose its ending?

The il form of a verb with a stem in d has no extra letter because the d takes the place of the usual -t. The OQLF says that when a stem ends in d, t or c, that consonant replaces the -t ending of the third person singular [2]. Its examples are il prend and il met [2].

So you write il vend, il attend, il perd, il répond. Do not write il vendt or il vende. In speech, je vends, tu vends and il vend sound alike.

What is the past participle of re verbs in French?

To build the passé composé, use avoir or être in the présent plus the past participle [4]: j’ai vendu, nous avons attendu.

How do French re conjugation tenses work?

French re conjugation tenses build on the same stem, with two rules to learn. In the imparfait, the stem is the nous stem of the présent, followed by -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient [5]. So nous vendons gives je vendais and ils vendaient.

In the futur simple, the OQLF says most irregular -re verbs add -rai, -ras, -ra, -rons, -rez, -ront straight to the stem, with no e in between [6]. Its examples are j’apprendrai and ils éteindront [6]. For vendre: je vendrai, nous vendrons.

For when to use each tense, read French tenses, explained.

Which re regular verbs in French are common?

These are common -re verbs that follow the vendre pattern. The English meanings are ours.

For the most frequent verbs of every kind, see the 100 most common French verbs.

Which re verbs for French learners are irregular?

Five verbs ending in -re look like the family above but do not follow it. The OQLF lists prendre, dire, être and faire among its examples of irregular verbs [1].

Two more lookalikes are worth a mention. The OQLF says peindre and atteindre lose their d in the singular (je peins, il atteint), and that rompre keeps its p (je romps) [3]. For full tables of these verbs, read French irregular verbs and Être conjugation.

Try it: five questions on -re verbs

Common mistakes

• Adding an e or a t to the il form. Write il vend, not il vende or il vendt [2].
• Using the vendre pattern on every -re verb. Prendre, mettre, faire, dire and être have their own forms [1][2][3].
• Saying vous disez or vous faisez. The forms are vous dites and vous faites [2].
• Adding an extra e in the futur. It is je vendrai, not je vendrerai [6].

See also: regular -er verbs.

Sources