French Irregular Verbs: Complete Guide with Conjugations

Key takeaways

• The most-used French verbs are all irregular. Être, avoir, aller, and faire appear in almost every conversation, and none of them follow the conjugation patterns for regular -er, -ir, or -re verbs.
• Learning irregular verbs in tense groups is more efficient than learning each verb across all tenses at once. Get the present tense of all 12 verbs right first, then add passé composé, then imparfait, then future.
• Être and avoir are doubly important because they function as auxiliary verbs in compound tenses. Every other verb’s passé composé, plus-que-parfait, and futur antérieur depends on knowing être or avoir in the present.
• Several irregular verbs cluster around shared stems in certain tenses. The future stem of aller is ir- (not all-). The imparfait of être is ét- throughout. Recognizing stems across verbs reduces the memorization load.

When French learners say conjugation is difficult, they usually mean irregular verbs. Regular verb patterns cover a small percentage of what appears in real French conversation.

The verbs that appear most, être, avoir, aller, faire, venir, vouloir, pouvoir, savoir, devoir, prendre, mettre, partir, are all irregular, which means the patterns learned from regular conjugation do not apply and each form must be memorized individually.

This guide covers complete conjugation tables for all 12 verbs across four tenses: present, passé composé, imparfait, and futur simple. Notes on shared stem patterns and verb family groupings (prendre/apprendre/comprendre, mettre/permettre/promettre) are included alongside each table.

Conjugation tables are a starting point, not a finish line. The irregular forms that matter are the ones that come out correctly when speaking in real time, without pausing to recall.

Find a French teacher online on italki, which has connected over 10 million learners with qualified teachers since 2007, and test these verb forms in real French conversation where the pressure of speaking at normal speed is the actual training condition.

Present tense: all 12 verbs

	être	avoir	aller	faire
je / j’	suis	ai	vais	fais
tu	es	as	vas	fais
il/elle/on	est	a	va	fait
nous	sommes	avons	allons	faisons
vous	êtes	avez	allez	faites
ils/elles	sont	ont	vont	font

	venir	vouloir	pouvoir	savoir
je / j’	viens	veux	peux	sais
tu	viens	veux	peux	sais
il/elle/on	vient	veut	peut	sait
nous	venons	voulons	pouvons	savons
vous	venez	voulez	pouvez	savez
ils/elles	viennent	veulent	peuvent	savent

	devoir	prendre	mettre	partir
je / j’	dois	prends	mets	pars
tu	dois	prends	mets	pars
il/elle/on	doit	prend	met	part
nous	devons	prenons	mettons	partons
vous	devez	prenez	mettez	partez
ils/elles	doivent	prennent	mettent	partent

Notes on present tense patterns:

• Vouloir and pouvoir share the same singular forms in je and tu before diverging: both have veux/peux and veux/peux for those persons.
• Prendre doubles the n in the third-person plural: ils prennent. The same applies to verbs built on prendre: apprendre (ils apprennent), comprendre (ils comprennent).
• Mettre drops one t in the singular forms (je mets, not je metts) and doubles it in nous/vous/ils: mettons, mettez, mettent.
• Partir and similar -ir verbs (sortir, dormir, servir) drop the final consonant of the stem in the singular: je pars (stem par-), not je partir or je partis.

Passé composé

The passé composé is formed with either avoir or être (present tense) plus the past participle.

With avoir (most verbs):

Verb	Past participle	Example
avoir	eu	j’ai eu
faire	fait	tu as fait
vouloir	voulu	il a voulu
pouvoir	pu	nous avons pu
savoir	su	vous avez su
devoir	dû	ils ont dû
prendre	pris	j’ai pris
mettre	mis	elle a mis

With être (motion/state-change verbs, including aller and venir): past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.

Verb	Past participle	Example
aller	allé/e/s/es	je suis allé(e)
venir	venu/e/s/es	tu es venu(e)
partir	parti/e/s/es	il est parti / elle est partie

Être itself uses avoir in the passé composé: j’ai été (I was / I have been).

A French tutor can run story-based exercises where you narrate past events using these verbs, which is the fastest way to make the distinction between avoir and être auxiliaries automatic. italki has 30,000+ teachers across 150+ languages, including qualified French teachers who build past-tense fluency through conversation-based practice.

Imparfait

The imparfait is formed by taking the nous form of the present tense, removing -ons, and adding the imparfait endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.

This rule applies to almost all French verbs, regular and irregular, with one exception: être, which uses the stem ét- throughout.

	être	avoir	aller	faire	venir	vouloir
je / j’	étais	avais	allais	faisais	venais	voulais
tu	étais	avais	allais	faisais	venais	voulais
il/elle/on	était	avait	allait	faisait	venait	voulait
nous	étions	avions	allions	faisions	venions	voulions
vous	étiez	aviez	alliez	faisiez	veniez	vouliez
ils/elles	étaient	avaient	allaient	faisaient	venaient	voulaient

	pouvoir	savoir	devoir	prendre	mettre	partir
je / j’	pouvais	savais	devais	prenais	mettais	partais
tu	pouvais	savais	devais	prenais	mettais	partais
il/elle/on	pouvait	savait	devait	prenait	mettait	partait
nous	pouvions	savions	devions	prenions	mettions	partions
vous	pouviez	saviez	deviez	preniez	mettiez	partiez
ils/elles	pouvaient	savaient	devaient	prenaient	mettaient	partaient

The nous stem rule is reliable for all irregular verbs except être. For faire: nous faisons, stem fais-, so imparfait is faisais, faisais, faisait…

For how these irregular verbs appear in imperative commands and instructions, and which forms are used in tu/vous/nous command forms, the guide to French imperative verbs covers the full imperative system with special attention to irregular forms.

Futur simple

The futur simple uses a specific stem for each verb plus the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont (which are the present tense forms of avoir, minus the av-).

The stems for the 12 core irregular verbs:

Verb	Future stem	Example (je)
être	ser-	je serai
avoir	aur-	j’aurai
aller	ir-	j’irai
faire	fer-	je ferai
venir	viendr-	je viendrai
vouloir	voudr-	je voudrai
pouvoir	pourr-	je pourrai
savoir	saur-	je saurai
devoir	devr-	je devrai
prendre	prendr-	je prendrai
mettre	mettr-	je mettrai
partir	partir-	je partirai

The endings are the same for all verbs: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont.

Je serai là demain. (I will be there tomorrow.) Nous aurons besoin de temps. (We will need time.) Est-ce qu’il viendra? (Will he come?) Vous pourrez partir à midi. (You will be able to leave at noon.)

Note that partir is regular in the future (stem is the infinitive minus the final e: partir-). Many French learners expect it to be irregular because it is irregular in the present tense. In the future, the stem is simply the infinitive for -ir verbs with no irregular futures.

Key patterns and shortcuts

Stem vowel changes in vouloir and pouvoir: Both verbs have eu in the plural (nous voulons, vous pouvez) but change in the singular and third-person plural: je veux, tu veux, il veut, ils veulent. This pattern is called a “boot verb” (le verbe en botte) and is shared by several other French verbs.

Venir and compounds: The verb venir is the root of devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), se souvenir de (to remember), and prévenir (to warn). All follow the same conjugation pattern as venir in every tense.

Prendre and compounds: Apprendre (to learn), comprendre (to understand), surprendre (to surprise), and reprendre (to take back, to resume) all conjugate identically to prendre.

Mettre and compounds: Permettre (to allow), promettre (to promise), admettre (to admit), remettre (to put back, to hand in) follow mettre exactly.

For how these compound verbs and their past participles work in perfect tenses, and which past participles are irregular, the guide to French indefinite pronouns and the article on French imperative verbs both cover contexts where these verb forms appear most frequently.

Making irregular verbs automatic

Recognizing these forms in reading and listening is one level of competence. Producing them correctly without pausing to think is another. Book a trial lesson today and spend the session speaking in French across past, present, and future, using these 12 verbs as the backbone.

The focused pressure of a real conversation is what converts a conjugation table into automatic speech, and italki’s 30,000+ expert tutors, trusted by over 10 million learners worldwide, include French teachers who run exactly that kind of targeted oral drill.

FAQ

Which irregular verbs should a beginner learn first?

Être and avoir first, because they function as auxiliaries in compound tenses. Without them, passé composé and other compound tenses are impossible. Then aller and faire, which appear in almost every conversation. The full list of 12 in this guide covers the verbs that appear most frequently in real French.

Why does aller have the future stem ir- instead of all-?

The future stem ir- comes from an older Latin form, not from the modern French infinitive aller. French inherited the future of aller from Latin ire (to go), while the present tense forms come from a different Latin verb (vadere). This mixing of different Latin roots in one verb is called “suppletion” and explains why some irregular verbs look completely unlike their infinitives in certain tenses.

What is the difference between je dois and il faut for expressing obligation?

Je dois (from devoir) expresses personal obligation: je dois partir (I have to leave). Il faut (from falloir) expresses impersonal obligation, the kind that applies generally or as a rule: il faut réserver à l’avance (one must book in advance, you need to book in advance). Both express necessity, but il faut is impersonal and does not change for person.

Is pouvoir in the conditional more polite than the present tense?

Yes. Vous pouvez m’aider? (Can you help me?) is a direct request. Vous pourriez m’aider? (Could you help me?) is softer and more polite. The conditional of vouloir is even more formal: Je voudrais (I would like) is the standard polite way to make a request in shops, restaurants, and formal settings.