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How to Conjugate IR Verbs in French

Verbs are action words--things that we do. In French, verbs must be conjugated. In this lesson, you will read about verb conjugation and learn the conjugation pattern for -IR verbs. You will also learn some common -IR verbs.

Verbs and Conjugation

In French, verbs have a set of endings. We call this a conjugation. A verb like choisir (pronounced: shwah-zeer), meaning 'to choose,' is called an -IR verb. To conjugate the verb, we chop off the -IR at the end of the word and put on the correct ending.

The ending for the verb corresponds to who is doing the verb. The person (or thing) doing the verb is called the subject. In French, subjects are:

je (pronounced: zhuh), meaning 'I'

tu (pronounced: tooh), meaning 'you' (singular, informal)

il, elle (pronounced: eel, el), meaning 'he' or 'she'

nous (pronounced: nooh), meaning 'we'

vous (pronounced: vooh), meaning 'you' (plural, formal)

ils, elles (pronounced: eel, el), meaning 'they'

-IR Verb Endings

This chart shows the endings for -IR verbs in French:

je _____ -is nous _____-issons

tu _____ -is vous _____-issez

il / elle _____ -it ils / elles _____-issent

To say 'I choose,' we use the verb chosir (meaning 'to choose') but take off the -ir. This leaves us with chois-. This first part of the verb, without an ending, is called the stem. We add an ending to the stem. For je (meaning 'I'), the ending is -is. So 'I choose' is je choisis (pronounced: zhuh shwah-zee).

Pronunciation

The endings for je, tu, il and elle all sound like 'ee.'

French Pronunciation

je choisis zhuh shwah-zee

tu choisis tyooh shwah-zee

il / elle choisit eel / el shwah-zee

Notice that the il and elle forms end with -it, while the je and tu forms end with -is. The written forms are different, but the pronunciation is exactly the same!

The plural forms--we, you (all), they--sound slightly different. The ending -issons sounds like 'ee-ssahn,' -issez sounds like 'ee-say', and -issent sounds like 'eess.'

French Pronunciation

nous choisissons nooh shwah-zee-ssahn

vous choisissez vooh shwah-zee-say

ils / elles choisissent eel / el shwah-zeess

Common -IR Verbs

French Pronunciation Meaning

Finir fee-neer to finish

Grandir grahn-deer to grow up

Réussir ray-ooh-seer to succeed

Réfléchir ray-flay-sheer to think about; to reflect

Maigrir may-greer to lose weight

Grossir groh-seer to gain weight

Finir

Let's take the verb finir as an example. Imagine that Pierre wants to play video games. His mom says OK, but first 'you finish the homework'--tu finis les devoirs (pronounced: tooh fee-nee lay dehv-wahr).

Pierre's a good student. He reminds his mom, 'I always finish homework'--je finis toujours les devoirs (pronounced: zhuh fee-nee tooh-zhor lay dehv-war). Pierre's brother Richard pipes up, 'We always finish homework!'--nous finissons toujours les devoirs (pronounced: nooh fee-nee-sahn tooh-zhor lay dehv-wahr). Mom thinks, 'That's true, they always finish homework,'--ils finissent toujours les devoirs (pronounced: eel fee-neess tooh-zhor lay dehv-wahr).

Grossir, Maigrir

Pierre's homework is about healthy eating habits. The first question is: 'What happens if you eat a lot of sugar?' Pierre answers, je grossis (pronounced: zhuh groh-see), meaning 'I gain weight.' The next question is: 'What happens if you eat well and increase your exercise?' Pierre answers, je maigris (pronounced: zhuh may-gree), meaning 'I lose weight.'

Pierre knows all about this, because his dad, Jacques, is on a diet. Pierre sees that Jacques eats salad and goes jogging every day. He loses weight, or il maigrit (pronounced: eel may-gree). Of course, because of Jacques, the whole family is on a diet. Pierre has noticed that 'we lose weight'--nous maigrissons (pronounced: nooh may-gree-ssahn)--whenever Jacques goes on a health kick. Pierre's grandmother noticed too. Vous maigrissez (pronounced: vooh may-gree-say), she tells them when she sees them, meaning 'You (all) are losing weight.'

But you can probably guess what happens when the family goes on vacation and eats a ton of junk food and treats: ils grossissent (pronounced: eel groh-seess), which means 'they gain weight.'

More Examples

Pierre and Richard are good students. Ils réfléchissent (pronounced: eel ray-flay-sheess)--'they think about their work'--and so ils réussissent (pronounced: eel ray-ooh-seess), 'they succeed.' Richard looks up to Pierre. Richard tells his brother, 'You always succeed', or tu réussis toujours (pronounced: tooh ray- ooh-see tooh-zhor). But Pierre tells Richard, nous réussissons (pronounced: nooh ray-ooh-see-sahn), which means 'we succeed, because we think', or nous réfléchissons (pronounced: nooh ray-flay-shee-sahn).

Pierre is much more responsible than he used to be. Je grandis (pronounced: zhuh grahn-dee), he thinks, meaning 'I'm growing up.' His mom agrees. In fact, she thinks both boys are growing up. She says, Vous grandissez (pronounced: vooh grahn-dee-say), meaning 'you (two) are growing up.'

Lesson Summary

In French, verbs that end in -IR use the following endings:

je _____is

tu _____is

il / elle _____it

nous _____issons

vous _____issez

ils / elles _____issent

Some common -IR verbs are finir, grandir, réussir, réfléchir, maigrir and grossir.