Regular Verbs

Regular verbs are relatively easy for most francophones, since most of them resemble French. On these next few pages are around 900 of the most common ones.

Form:

When we use a regular verb in the Simple Past tense, it always ends in "-ed."

Almost all of these regular verbs can become adjectives if you add "-ed" to the end. Adjectives follow the verb be. Don't confuse them with the past form. Adjectives are usually states, which can be past, present or future.

Roughly half of English comes from French. Can you determine what these verbs mean in French? They should be very easy for you.

Other regular verbs which can be dangerous for francophones, since they look similar to French words but have very different meanings. These are called "False Cognates" ("faux amis"). Check the meaning in a dictionary or in the vocabulary section of this book.

Still other regular verbs imitate the sound that the performer does. This is called "onomatopoeia." The closest equivalent in French is "faire ______."

Something that helps Quebecers learn English is the prevalence of "joual" in their lives.

While it may not help their French, joual is helpful in learning English because many English words have entered their vocabulary and they naturally understand their meaning. For these words, just add "-é" to the end of the verb and there is a great chance that you will understand the English meaning.

On the same subject, many irregular verbs have been introduced into joual also:

bid, bust, catch, deal, fit, fly, grind, ride, run, shake, shine, shoot, speed, spin, split, swing

Now come the harder ones. These are words that often have to be learned by heart, as they are not necessarily used in the daily speech of francophones.

Many French infinitives end with -er. Several of their English equivalents end with "-ate."

Be careful with these "-ate" words:

appreciate, calculate, coagulate, compensate, communicate, complicate, concentrate, decorate, educate, evaluate, exascerbate, exasperate, fluctuate, hesitate, illustrate, imitate, implicate, indicate, innovate, integrate, interrogate, irritate, operate, participate, radiate, renovate, salivate, separate, suffocate, validate

BUT: "Distribute," not distribuate; "evolve," not evoluate, "ferment," not fermentate, "pollute," not polluate and "program," not programmate.