Regular -er verbs

Good news for German speakers: you already have both sounds. English speakers struggle here; you do not.

ou = /u/, like German u

The spelling ou is the sound of German gut or Uhr, English food: lips rounded and pushed forward.

• vous /vu/, nous /nu/, tout /tu/, pour /puʁ/, où /u/

u = /y/, like German ü

The single letter u is always /y/, exactly the German ü in über or Tür. Never read it as English u or German u.

• tu /ty/, sur /syʁ/, une /yn/, le bureau /byʁo/, la musique /myzik/

Minimal pairs: listen and repeat

The last pair is a good reason to practise.

Before another vowel, ou turns into a short /w/ and u into a short /ɥ/ (a quick ü gliding into the next vowel): oui /wi/, jouer /ʒwe/, but je suis /sɥi/, la nuit /nɥi/.

oi = /wa/

The spelling oi always sounds /wa/, like English wa in water: never German eu or oi.

• moi /mwa/, toi /twa/, trois /tʁwa/, le soir /swaʁ/, noir /nwaʁ/, pourquoi /puʁkwa/, voilà /vwala/, le croissant /kʁwasɑ̃/

With oy before a vowel you get /waj/: le voyage /vwajaʒ/, envoyer /ɑ̃vwaje/ (to send).

Trap for German readers: oin is nasal /wɛ̃/: le coin /kwɛ̃/ (corner), loin /lwɛ̃/ (far).

About 90 % of French verbs end in -er, and almost all of them follow one pattern. Learn it once and you can use thousands of verbs: parler, travailler, aimer, habiter, chercher, regarder, donner, trouver, rester, jouer, aider, entrer...

The pattern

Take the infinitive, remove -er, and add the endings:

4 of 6 forms sound the same

-e, -es, -e, -ent are all silent. Je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent sound identical: /paʁl/. Only nous parlons /ɔ̃/ and vous parlez /e/ have an audible ending. In speech, the pronoun does the work, which is why French never drops it (unlike Spanish or Italian).

Remember from lesson 3: -ent in verbs is never nasal. Ils parlent /il paʁl/, not parlant.

Verbs starting with a vowel or h

Je becomes j', and the plural pronouns link with a /z/:

Listen for the /z/: ils aiment /ilzɛm/ (plural) vs il aime /ilɛm/ (singular). Sometimes it is the only clue.

One present for three meanings

French has no -ing form. Je travaille = I work, I am working, and often I will work, just like German ich arbeite:

• Je travaille dans une banque. (I work in a bank.)
• Tu regardes quoi ? (What are you looking at?)
• Nous arrivons demain. (We're arriving tomorrow.)

depuis + present = German seit

For something that started in the past and is still going on, French uses the present with depuis, exactly like German seit. English needs the perfect:

• J'habite à Paris depuis deux ans. (Ich wohne seit zwei Jahren in Paris. / I have lived in Paris for two years.)

Small spelling adjustments

To keep the soft sound before -ons, two groups change their spelling in the nous form only:

• -ger: manger → nous mangeons (the e keeps g soft /ʒ/)
• -cer: commencer → nous commençons (the ç keeps c soft /s/)

Negation and questions

• Je ne travaille pas le lundi. (I don't work on Mondays.)
• Vous parlez anglais ? (intonation)
• Est-ce que vous aimez Paris ? (neutral, with est-ce que)
• Vous habitez où ? (Where do you live?)

Trap: aller ends in -er but is irregular (je vais, tu vas...). It is the only one. Everything else in -er is regular or almost regular.

Adjectives in -eux (masculine) and -euse (feminine) match English -ous and often German -ös. Germans have a pronunciation advantage: -eux is /ø/, the German ö in schön, and -euse is /øz/ with a voiced z: nerveux /nɛʁvø/, nerveuse /nɛʁvøz/.

The masculine -eux does not change in the plural: un homme sérieux, des hommes sérieux. The feminine plural is -euses.

Traps

• heureux (happy) and malheureux (unhappy) look like the pattern but are not guessable. Learn them separately.
• fameux often means the famous in an ironic way, or simply great: pas fameux = not great.
• curieux also means strange: C'est curieux. (That's odd.)
• sérieux covers English serious and German seriös (reliable): une société sérieuse is a trustworthy company.
• Not every -ous word becomes -eux: jaloux / jalouse (jealous), énorme (enormous), anonyme (anonymous).