đź“– Mastering French Verb Stems for the Imperfect, Future, and Conditional Tenses
If you’re learning French, you’ve probably noticed that the imperfect, future, and conditional tenses all depend on specific verb stems — and that getting them right is half the battle to correct conjugation.
In this post, I’ll break down how to form these stems and give you a handy cheatsheet for the most common irregular verbs.
🔹 Imperfect Tense (Imparfait)
The imperfect tense describes ongoing or repeated actions in the past (like I was walking or I used to go).
âś… How to find the stem: Take the nous form of the verb in the present tense, and remove the -ons ending.
For example:
- parler → nous parlons → parl- → je parlais, tu parlais, il parlait…
- finir → nous finissons → finiss- → je finissais, tu finissais…
- prendre → nous prenons → pren- → je prenais, tu prenais…
Imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
🔹 Future & Conditional Tenses
The future tense expresses what will happen, and the conditional expresses what would happen.
âś… Key point: Both tenses share the same stem. For regular verbs, this is usually the infinitive form:
- parler → parler-
- finir → finir-
- prendre → prendr- (drop the final -e of -re verbs)
Future endings: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont
Conditional endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (same as imperfect endings!)
🌟 Cheatsheet: Common Irregular Future/Conditional Stems
Here’s a table of the most important irregular verbs — memorize these to sound more natural and fluent!
| Verb | Irregular Stem | Future Example | Conditional Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ĂŞtre | ser- | je serai (I will be) | je serais (I would be) |
| avoir | aur- | j’aurai (I will have) | j’aurais (I would have) |
| aller | ir- | j’irai (I will go) | j’irais (I would go) |
| faire | fer- | je ferai (I will do) | je ferais (I would do) |
| savoir | saur- | je saurai (I will know) | je saurais (I would know) |
| pouvoir | pourr- | je pourrai (I will be able) | je pourrais (I could) |
| voir | verr- | je verrai (I will see) | je verrais (I would see) |
| vouloir | voudr- | je voudrai (I will want) | je voudrais (I would like) |
| devoir | devr- | je devrai (I will have to) | je devrais (I should) |
| recevoir | recevr- | je recevrai (I will receive) | je recevrais (I would receive) |
| venir | viendr- | je viendrai (I will come) | je viendrais (I would come) |
| tenir | tiendr- | je tiendrai (I will hold) | je tiendrais (I would hold) |
| envoyer | enverr- | j’enverrai (I will send) | j’enverrais (I would send) |
| falloir (il faut) | faudr- | il faudra (it will be necessary) | il faudrait (it would be necessary) |
| pleuvoir (il pleut) | pleuvr- | il pleuvra (it will rain) | il pleuvrait (it would rain) |
đź’ˇ Pro Tips to Remember
- Regular -er and -ir verbs → infinitive stem
- Regular -re verbs → drop the final “-e”
- Irregular verbs → memorize the special stems