Lesson 10: -RE verbs. Faire, prendre, venir. Venir de + infinitive

Part 1: The third group — verbs in -RE

After -ER (group 1, Lesson 7) and -IR (group 2, Lesson 9), the third group. The smallest and most chaotic, but it does have a "regular core": verbs like vendre, attendre, répondre.

The main rule: drop -re, add the endings. In the third person singular — add nothing at all (no -t, no -e, just the bare stem!).

Vendre (to sell) — the model

Person	Form	Ending	How it sounds
je	vends	-s	"vahn" (s, d silent)
tu	vends	-s	"vahn"
il / elle	vend	— (nothing!)	"vahn"
nous	vendons	-ons	"vahn-DOHN"
vous	vendez	-ez	"vahn-DAY"
ils / elles	vendent	-ent	"VAHND" (the -ent is silent, but the d is pronounced)

Trap! In il vend there is no -t on the end. This is unique to the -RE group. -ER verbs end in -e (il parle), -IR verbs end in -it (il finit), -RE verbs end in nothing: il vend, il attend, il répond. The stem ends in a consonant, and that consonant stays silent at word end.

Ear trap: je vends and ils vendent sound different! Singular: "vahn" (d silent). Plural: "VAHND" (d pronounced because a vowel — the silent e of -ent — used to follow it). That difference is the only audible singular/plural marker in this group.

Verbs that conjugate the same way

Verb	Meaning	Note
vendre	to sell
attendre	to wait (for)	direct object, no preposition: j'attends le bus — "I'm waiting for the bus" (no for in French!)
répondre (à)	to answer	needs à: je réponds à la question
entendre	to hear	not to be confused with écouter (to listen)
descendre	to go down; to get off (a vehicle)	takes être in the past!
rendre	to give back, to return (something)	rendre un livre — to return a book
perdre	to lose

All of them conjugate exactly like vendre. Run attendre through: j'attends, tu attends, il attend, nous attendons, vous attendez, ils attendent.

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Part 2: Faire — "to do/make", but much more

Faire is the third-most-frequent French verb after être and avoir. Completely irregular — learn it whole, no shortcuts.

Person	Form	How it sounds
je	fais	"feh"
tu	fais	"feh"
il / elle	fait	"feh"
nous	faisons	"fuh-ZOHN" (warning: ai = "uh"!)
vous	faites	"fet"
ils / elles	font	"fohn"

Three traps in faire:

1. nous faisons reads "fuh-zohn", not "feh-zohn". This is the only place in French where ai is pronounced "uh" (schwa). Strange, but universal.
2. vous faites ends in -tes, not -ez. Only three verbs in the entire language do this: vous êtes (être), vous faites (faire), vous dites (dire). Three. Total.
3. ils font is short — same pattern as ils sont (être), ils ont (avoir), ils vont (aller). Memorize the foursome: font, sont, ont, vont.

What faire actually means

Base meaning is "to do" or "to make", but in idioms it covers "to play (a sport)", "to engage in", "to perform". English uses three or four different verbs where French just uses faire.

Expression	Meaning
faire les courses	to do the (grocery) shopping
faire le ménage	to do the housework
faire la cuisine	to cook
faire la vaisselle	to do the dishes
faire ses devoirs	to do one's homework
faire du sport	to do sports / to exercise
faire du vélo	to go cycling
faire la queue	to stand in line / queue
faire un voyage	to take a trip
faire attention	to pay attention / be careful
Il fait beau / froid / chaud	The weather is nice / it's cold / it's hot

English-speaker trap: the weather idioms use faire + adjective, not être. Not il est froid (that would mean "he is cold-natured"), but il fait froid — literally "it makes cold". Il fait beau = "the weather's nice". Lock this in early.

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Part 3: Prendre — "to take", "to have (food)", "to take (transport)"

Prendre is the other big champion. Learn it once and you get comprendre (to understand) and apprendre (to learn) for free — they conjugate identically.

Person	Form	How it sounds
je	prends	"prahn"
tu	prends	"prahn"
il / elle	prend	"prahn"
nous	prenons	"pruh-NOHN" (one n!)
vous	prenez	"pruh-NAY" (one n!)
ils / elles	prennent	"PREN" (double n, nasal disappears!)

The big trap: in the plural, the stem changes. In nous/vous, you get a single n and the sound "pruh-". In ils prennent, you get a double nn, and that double n kills the nasal vowel: the en opens up to a flat "eh" sound, like English pen. So ils prennent sounds like "PREN", nothing nasal about it.

What prendre means

Expression	Meaning
prendre le métro / le bus / le train	to take the metro / bus / train
prendre un taxi	to take a taxi
prendre le petit-déjeuner	to have breakfast
prendre un café	to have a coffee
prendre une douche	to take a shower
prendre une photo	to take a photo
prendre rendez-vous	to make an appointment

French speakers don't "go by metro" — they take the metro. They don't "have breakfast" — they take breakfast. The logic: "I take = I select and use." Once you spot the pattern, dozens of idioms become predictable.

Bonus: comprendre, apprendre — same pattern

	comprendre (to understand)	apprendre (to learn)
je	comprends	apprends
tu	comprends	apprends
il	comprend	apprend
nous	comprenons	apprenons
vous	comprenez	apprenez
ils	comprennent	apprennent

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Part 4: Venir — "to come"

Person	Form	How it sounds
je	viens	"vyahn" (nasal)
tu	viens	"vyahn"
il / elle	vient	"vyahn"
nous	venons	"vuh-NOHN"
vous	venez	"vuh-NAY"
ils / elles	viennent	"VYEN" (double n, nasal gone)

Same logic as prendre: in nous/vous, the stem is "ven-" (single n, plain vowel). In every other person, the stem is "vien-". And in ils viennent, the double nn kills the nasal — you get the open "VYEN" sound, like English yen.

Same conjugation: tenir (to hold), devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), se souvenir (de) (to remember).

Venir de + country / city — "to come from"

Where are you from? Use venir de. The preposition is the mirror of what you'd use with aller (Lesson 9):

Country	venir de …	aller …
la France (fem.)	de France	en France
le Canada (masc.)	du Canada	au Canada
les États-Unis (plural)	des États-Unis	aux États-Unis
Paris (a city)	de Paris	à Paris

• Je viens de France. — I'm from France.
• Tu viens d'où ? — Where are you from?
• Elle vient du Japon. — She's from Japan.
• Nous venons des États-Unis. — We're from the United States.

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Part 5: Venir de + infinitive — "to have just done"

This isn't movement. This is time. The construction "venir de + infinitive" means "to have just done something" — an action that finished a moment ago. It's the perfect mirror of aller + infinitive (the futur proche from Lesson 9).

Construction	Meaning	Example
aller + infinitive	about to do (futur proche)	Je vais manger. — I'm going to eat.
venir de + infinitive	just did (passé récent)	Je viens de manger. — I just ate.

This is called the passé récent — the recent past. It's a clever bit of grammar: the verb venir sits in the present tense, but the meaning is past. Think of it as "I come from doing X" → "I just did X".

Example	Meaning
Je viens d'arriver.	I just arrived.
Tu viens de finir ?	Did you just finish?
Il vient de partir.	He just left.
Nous venons de manger.	We just ate.
Vous venez d'appeler ?	Did you just call?
Ils viennent de rentrer.	They just got home.

Don't mix up the two uses of de! Je viens de Paris. = "I'm from Paris" (where you come from). Je viens de manger. = "I just ate" (what you just finished). The difference: if a verb in the infinitive follows de, it's the passé récent. If a place follows de, it's geographical origin.

English speakers — note: English does this with "just" + the past tense ("I just ate"). French does it with present-tense venir + de + infinitive. The infinitive never changes form, regardless of who did it: Je viens de manger, Nous venons de manger — only venir changes.

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