A1 · The present tense
Present tense: -re verbs
The smallest group — and the verbs in it take no preposition.
At a glance
- Remember
- You wait the bus, you look the keys, you listen the radio.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The present — What holds at the moment, what is under way, or what is always the case.
- Form
- j’attendsI wait
- Signal words
- depuis
- longtemps
- ici
- Trap
- Wrong:J’attends pour le bus.Right:J’attends le bus.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) person ending
| I wait | j’attends |
| you wait | tu attends |
| he, she waits | il, elle attend |
| we wait | nous attendons |
| you wait | vous attendez |
| they wait | ils, elles attendent |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The third person singular takes no ending.
Il attend le bus.He is waiting for the bus.
attendre takes a direct object, with no preposition.
J’attends ma sœur.I am waiting for my sister.
chercher, écouter and payer take no preposition either.
Je réponds à la question.I am looking for my keys.
Example sentences
Nous attendons depuis vingt minutes.We have been waiting for twenty minutes.
Ils vendent leur voiture.They are selling their car.
Tu entends la musique ?Can you hear the music?
Elle perd toujours ses clés.She is always losing her keys.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The English preposition comes across and lands on a verb that does not want it: J'attends pour le bus, je cherche pour mes clés, j'écoute à la radio. All three are wrong, and all three come from the same habit. In the other direction, répondre needs an à that English does not supply: Je réponds à la question.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The regular -re verbs add: -s, -s, —, -ons, -ez, -ent. The third person singular gets nothing at all, which no English verb does. The group is small but its members are everyday: attendre, vendre, entendre, répondre, perdre.
The thing worth learning here is not the endings but the objects. English hangs a preposition on half its commonest verbs — «wait *for* the bus», «look *for* the keys», «listen *to* the radio», «pay *for* the tickets» — and French hangs nothing on any of them: attendre le bus, chercher les clés, écouter la radio, payer les billets.
It runs the other way once: répondre takes à where English answers a question directly. So the rule is not «French uses fewer prepositions» but «the list is different», and the four above are the ones that cost marks daily.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: attendre · répondre · perdre · entendre · vendre