1. How to conjugate and what conjugation means…
Er verbs
How to conjugate and what conjugation means…

2. Er verbs are “regular verbs”
Regular verbs use a stem based on the infinitive for conjugation.
Regular -er verbs have the same endings for every verb.
95% of all French verbs are regular –er verbs (like –ar verbs in Spanish, like most verbs in English are similar)

3. How do I conjugate them? Let’s use Parler as an example:
Drop the er…parler
Add the following endings:
Je parle
Tu parles
Il/Elle parle
Nous parlons
Vous parlez
Ils/Elles parlent

4. This works for all of them
Let’s now use arriver as an example
Drop the –er…Arriver
J’arrive
Tu arrives
Il/Elle arrive
Nous arrivons
Vous arrivez
Ils/elles arrivent

5. What am I saying? Right now, we are only working in present tense.
In English, we have three forms of the present tense.
In French, we have one.
In English, I speak, I am speaking, and I do speak are all forms of the present tense.
In French, Je parle means any and all of those three.

6. WAIT! HOW DO THEY KNOW WHICH ONE I’M SAYING?
..context…
So don’t worry about it. You’re saying it correctly. Don’t try to make it more difficult than it is.

7. Exceptions to the rule Unfortunately, every rule has exceptions.
Fortunately, it’s not that hard to remember the exceptions.
If a verb ends in –ger, then you leave the e on before ons.
Ex. Nous mangeons, Nous nageons NOT nous mangons, or nous nagons
If a word ends in –cer, then make the c a ç.
Ex. Nous commençons, NOT nous commencons

8. Practice Let’s use regarder as an example: Conjugate it. Je Tu Il Nous
Vous
Ils

9. You should’ve gotten Je regarde Tu regardes Il regarde Nous regardons
Vous regardez
Ils regardent

10. Practice
Let’s use manger
Conjugate it. Je Tu Il
Nous
Vous
Ils

11. You should’ve gotten Je mange Tu manges Il mange Nous mangeons
Vous mangez
Ils mangent

12. Let’s use adorer
Conjugate it. Je Tu Il
Nous
Vous
Ils

13. You should’ve gotten J’adore Tu adores Il adore Nous adorons
Vous adorez
Ils adorent

14. Negation
You already know how to do this, but I’m just going to show you again.
If I want to say, I am not dancing with you! I would say,
Je ne danse pas avec toi!
If I want to say, I don’t eat snails! Then I would say, Je ne mange pas les escargots.
Just remember to put ne and pas around the verb (this requires that you know what the verb is).

15. Putting it all together
Now you should be able to write compound sentences in French. See if you can figure out what these mean:
Un jour, je veux danser avec Michael Jackson, mais je ne danse pas bien. Je danse comme un pingouin.
Je suis espagnol. Je joue souvent au foot. Je joue bien parce que je suis espagnol.
Je parle chinois mais je ne parle pas français. C’est bizarre parce que je parle français maintenant.
Je lave mon scooter parce que toutes les filles pensent que je suis cool parce que j’ai un scooter.

16. What they said
One day I want to dance with Michael Jackson, but I don’t dance well. I dance like a penguin.
I’m spanish. I play soccer often. I play well because I’m spanish.
I speak Chinese but I don’t speak French. That’s weird because I’m speaking French right now.
I am washing my scooter because all the girls think I’m cool because I have a scooter.

17. Random ape