French - Lesson 3 - Conjugation of the Verb être
Conjugation of the Verb être - To Be
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Here is a chart showing the conjugation of the verb être, meaning "to be".
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| First | je suis I am |
nous sommes we are |
| Second | tu es you are |
vous êtes you are |
| Third | il/elle/on est he/it/she/one is |
ils/elles sont they are |
Here are some more vocabulary words. Again, if you'd rather have these introduced as part of a dialog, simply go on to the next lesson.
| une mère | a mom / mum, mother |
| qui | who |
| nous sommes | we are |
| vous êtes | you (pl. / sing. polite) are |
| mes | my (pl.) |
| un parent | a parent |
| bien sûr | of course |
| il est | he is |
| mon (m.) / ma (f.) | my |
| un père | a dad, father |
| elle est | she is |
| ils sont | they are |
| un grand-parent (sing.) / des grands-parents (pl.) | grandparent / grandparents |
| tu es | you (sing. familiar) are |
| je suis | I am |
| une princesse | a princess |
Additional Notes
The "tu" form is used when speaking with people you are very familiar with, such as friends and family. For a more polite usage, use the "vous" form, even when speaking with only one person. For example, someone speaking to their boss, or a child speaking to an adult who is not close family might say "vous êtes" instead of "tu es".
Random Trivia
English used to also have a separate second person singular form - do you know what it is? It's something you might still hear today, though not very often. Yup, it's "thou", as in "thou art". Most other Indo-European languages still use the second person singular forms, and the English form of many verbs is similar to languages such as German ("thou hast" in English, "du hast" in German, "you have" today).
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