French, To / In and From places, To Come and to Go, Conjugating Regular Verbs in the Present Indicative Tense

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French - To / In and From places, To Come and to Go, Conjugating Regular Verbs in the Present Indicative Tense

To / In and From places

	Places		Cities		Countries
Masc.	au	du	à	de	au	du
Fem.	à la	de la	à	de	en	de
Vowel	à l'	de l'	à	d'	en	d'
Plural	aux	des	aux	des	aux	des

If the name of a country, continent, island, state or province ends with an e, the gender is feminine. If it ends in anything else, it is masculine. The exceptions are le Cambodge, le Maine, le Mexique, le Zaïre and le Mozambique. Some cities have an article as well, such as La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans).

**Prepositions with American States**
	To / In	From
Feminine	en	de
Islands	à	de / d'
Masc. w/ Vowel	en / dans l'	d' / de l'
Masc. w/ Consonant	dans le	du

Californie, Caroline du Nord / Sud, Floride, Géorgie, Louisiane, Pennsylvanie, and Virginie are the feminine states. The exception to the masculine beginning with a consonant rule is Texas: in / to Texas is au Texas.

To Come and to Go

Venir-to come (vuh-neer)				Aller-to go (ah-lay)
viens	vee-ahn	venons	vuh-nohn	vais	vay	allons	ah-lohn
viens	vee-ahn	venez	vuh-nay	vas	vah	allez	ah-lay
vient	vee-ahn	viennent	vee-enn	va	vah	vont	vohn

Other verbs that are conjugated like venir: tenir - to hold, devenir - to become, obtenir - to get, revenir - to come back.

Je viens des Etats-Unis. I come from the United States.
Il tient un crayon. He's holding a pencil.
Nous allons en Espagne. We're going to Spain.
Tu ne vas pas au Brésil cet été. You're not going to Brazil this summer.

Aller + an infinitive means "going to do something."
Ils vont aller en Angleterre. They are going to go to England.
Elle va parler russe. She's going to speak Russian.
Je vais devenir professeur. I'm going to become a professor.

Aller is also used idiomatically when talking about health.
Comment vas-tu? How are you?
Je vais bien. I'm fine.

Venir de + an infinitive means "to have just done something."
Il vient d'aller à la Finlande. He just went to Finland.
Vous venez de manger une pomme. You just ate an apple.

Conjugating Regular Verbs in the Present Indicative Tense

Verbs in French end in -er, -re, or -ir. The verb before it is conjugated is called the infinitive. Removing the last two letters leaves you with the stem (aimer is the infinitive, aim- is the stem.) The present indicative tense indicates an ongoing action, general state, or habitual activity. Besides the simple present tense (I write, I run, I see); there are two other forms of the present tense in English: the progressive (I am writing, I am running, etc.) and the emphatic (I do write, I do run, etc.) However, these three English present tenses are all translated by the present indicative tense in French.

To conjugate verbs in the present tense, use the stem and add the following endings.


-er		-re		1st -ir		2nd -ir*
-e	-ons	-s	-ons	-is	-issons	-s	-ons
-es	-ez	-s	-ez	-is	-issez	-s	-ez
-e	-ent	-	-ent	-it	-issent	-t	-ent

Sample Regular Verbs
aimer -to like, love				vendre - to sell
j'aime	zhem	aimons	em-ohn	vends	vawn	vendons	vawn-dohn
aimes	em	aimez	em-ay	vends	vawn	vendez	vawn-day
aime	em	aiment	em	vend	vawn	vendent	vawn

finir - to finish				partir - to leave
finis	fee-nee	finissons	fee-nee	pars	pahr	partons	pahr-tohn
finis	fee-nee	finissez	fee-nee	pars	pahr	partez	pahr-tay
finit	fee-nee	finissent	fee-neess	part	pahr	partent	pahrt

Regular verbs
-er			-re
aimer	em-ay	to like, love	vendre	vawn-druh	to sell
chanter	shahn-tay	to sing	attendre	ah-tawn-druh	to wait for
chercher	share-shay	to look for	entendre	awn-tawn-druh	to listen
commencer	koh-mawn-say	to begin	perdre	pair-druh	to lose
donner	dohn-nay	to give	répondre (à)	ray-pohn-druh (ah)	to answer
étudier	ay-too-dee-ay	to study	descendre	deh-sawn-druh	to go down
fermer	fehr-may	to close	1st -ir
habiter	ah-bee-tay	to live	bâtir	bah-teer	to build
jouer	zhoo-ay	to play	finir	fee-neer	to finish
manger	mawn-zhay	to eat	choisir	shwa-zeer	to choose
montrer	mohn-tray	to show	punir	poo-neer	to punish
parler	par-lay	to speak	remplir	rawn-pleer	to fill
penser	pawn-say	to think	obéir (à)	oh-bay-eer (ah)	to obey
travailler	trah-vy-yay	to work	réussir	ray-oo-seer	to succeed
trouver	troo-vay	to find	guérir	gay-reer	to cure, heal

Note: If a verb is followed by à (like répondre) you have to use the à and any contractions after the conjugated verb. Ex: Je réponds au téléphone.

* The 2nd -ir verbs are considered irregular sometimes because there are only a few verbs which follow that pattern. Other verbs like partir are sortir (to go out), dormir (to sleep), mentir (to lie), sentir (to smell, feel) and servir (to serve.)