French I: Verb Charts
French I: Present Tense of Verbs
“You” is the understood subject of a command and is, therefore, omitted. ( Tu and vous are the two ways to say “you” in French.) Use tu, the familiar command, when speaking to one friend or family member. Use vous, the polite command, when speaking formally or when directing the command to more than one person. To form a command, simply drop the subject pronoun and use the proper verb form that would match the pronoun you are dropping:
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Regarde le panneau! (Look at the sign!)
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Descendez du train! (Get off the train!)
Note that the tu command of - er verbs drops the final s from the conjugated verb in both regular and irregular verbs except when followed by the adverbial pronouns y (there) and en (some, of, about, from, it or them).
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Vas-y. (Go there.)
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Manges-en. (Eat some of it.)
Three common irregular verb commands are shown in Table
1 . The
nous form of the verb (without the subject) may be used to suggest “let's”:
Allons au cinema. (Let's go to the movies.)
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