{"id":22003,"date":"2015-05-13T14:15:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T12:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22003"},"modified":"2017-10-23T15:24:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:24:44","slug":"spoken-french-what-conjugations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/spoken-french-what-conjugations\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoken French: What Conjugations?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking French is easy! Sure, there’s a ton of conjugaisons<\/strong>, but they don’t always matter when you speak. I’ve touched on des fautes<\/a><\/strong> (mistakes) francophones<\/strong> make when writing French and how ces fautes<\/strong> can be useful<\/a> in learning how to speak like un vrai fran\u00e7ais<\/strong> (a real French person).<\/p>\n

This time we\u2019re not going to focus on une faute<\/strong>, but a nice thing to remember to make speaking French easy. Les verbes r\u00e9guliers<\/a><\/strong> (regular verbs) are pronounced the same for the vast majority of their conjugaisons<\/strong> in le pr\u00e9sent de l\u2019indicatif<\/strong><\/a>. It’s a bit more complicated for les verbes irr\u00e9guliers<\/a><\/strong> (irregular verbs), but first let’s look at the easy ones with the regular verb, parler<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Parler<\/strong> To speak<\/em><\/p>\n

Je parle
\nTu parles
\nIl\/elle parle
\nNous parlons<\/em>
\nVous parlez<\/em>
\nIls parlent<\/p>\n

The classic conjugaison<\/strong> chart doesn\u2019t tell us everything about how French is used. D\u2019abord<\/strong> (first of all), in modern casual French, \u201cNous<\/strong>\u201d is rarely used. Le pronom<\/strong> \u201con<\/strong>\u201d is used in its place and is conjugated exactly like Il<\/strong> and Elle<\/strong>. That leaves \u201cVous parlez<\/strong>\u201d as the only outlier that needs to be remembered, because \u201cIls parlent<\/strong>\u201d is pronounced just like the other conjugaisons<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Je parle
\nTu parles
\nIl\/elle parle
\nOn parle
\nIls parlent<\/p>\n

Toutes ces conjugaisons<\/strong> (all of these conjugations) are pronounced \u201cParl\u201d.\u00a0 De plus<\/strong> (what\u2019s more), this isn\u2019t limited to le premier groupe de conjugaisons<\/strong>! Although for le deuxi\u00e8me groupe<\/strong> it only stays true for the first four conjugaisons<\/strong>. Cependant<\/strong> (however), it is also often true for les verbes irr\u00e9guliers du troisi\u00e8me groupe<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Too much grammar vocabulary makes things confusing, so let’s just look at a couple examples: Finir<\/em> from le deuxi\u00e8me groupe <\/strong>(the second group) and prendre<\/em> from le troisi\u00e8me groupe <\/strong>(the third group).<\/p>\n

Finir<\/strong> To finish<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prendre<\/strong> To take<\/em><\/p>\n

Je finis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Je prends
\nTu finis\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Tu prends
\nIl\/elle finit\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Il\/elle prend
\nOn finit\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 On prend
\nIls finissent\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ils prennent<\/em><\/p>\n

Finis<\/em> and finit<\/em> are both pronounced as \u201cfini\u201d, but finissent<\/em> is prouncned as \u201cfinis\u201d. De la m\u00eame mani\u00e8re<\/strong> (in the same way) prends<\/em> and prend<\/em> are both pronounced as \u201cpron\u201d (with a nasal vowel), but prennent<\/em> is pronounced as \u201cpren\u201d.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still scratching your head thinking it\u2019s too complicated, just remember that it\u2019s very similar to how conjugaisons<\/strong> work in English.<\/p>\n

To speak\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To finish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To take<\/p>\n

I speak\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I finish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I take
\nYou speak\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You finish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You take
\nHe\/she speaks\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He\/she finishes\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He\/she takes<\/em>
\nWe speak\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 We finish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We take
\nThey speak\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 They finish\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 They take<\/p>\n

They are all pronounced (and fortunately written) the same except for la troisi\u00e8me personne du singulier<\/strong>, or more clearly, for he<\/em> and she<\/em>. You still have to be CaReFuL<\/a> about how you pronounce French words, but remember it’s easier than it looks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Speaking French is easy! Sure, there’s a ton of conjugaisons, but they don’t always matter when you speak. I’ve touched on des fautes (mistakes) francophones make when writing French and how ces fautes can be useful in learning how to speak like un vrai fran\u00e7ais (a real French person). This time we\u2019re not going to…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":22007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22003","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28756,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22003\/revisions\/28756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}