Français — Common irregular verbs (present)

Eleven verbs you meet constantly — aller, faire, prendre, venir, mettre, dire, voir, savoir, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir — are irregular in the present. Here are their full forms.

How it works

✓ Rule

French has a small set of very frequent irregular verbs. Their stems change and the endings do not follow the -er/-ir/-re patterns: je vais, tu fais, il prend, nous venons, vous mettez, ils voient. Learn each block of six forms as a whole.

Conjugations

Present tense: je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles
Infinitive / meaning	Present (je → ils/elles)
aller — to go	vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont
faire — to do / make	fais, fais, fait, faisons, faites, font
prendre — to take	prends, prends, prend, prenons, prenez, prennent
venir — to come	viens, viens, vient, venons, venez, viennent
mettre — to put	mets, mets, met, mettons, mettez, mettent
dire — to say	dis, dis, dit, disons, dites, disent
voir — to see	vois, vois, voit, voyons, voyez, voient
savoir — to know	sais, sais, sait, savons, savez, savent
pouvoir — to be able (can)	peux, peux, peut, pouvons, pouvez, peuvent
vouloir — to want	veux, veux, veut, voulons, voulez, veulent
devoir — to have to (must)	dois, dois, doit, devons, devez, doivent

Good to know

⚠ Note

Watch the vous forms: vous faites and vous dites (not *faisez / *disez), and the ending -ont in vont and font. Many verbs split into two stems — one for je/tu/il/ils, another for nous/vous: je veux but nous voulons, je dois but nous devons, je vois but nous voyons, je mets but nous mettons.