-ER, -IR, -RE Verbs & Daily Routine
-ER, -IR, -RE क्रियाएँ और दैनिक दिनचर्या
Almost every French verb belongs to one of three predictable families, named after their infinitive ending (-er, -ir, -re), and each family has its own six-way set of personal endings to memorize. Hindi's regularity runs along a completely different axis: every Hindi infinitive simply ends in -ना, and instead of grouping verbs by that ending, Hindi built one largely uniform present-habitual template — verb stem + ता/ती/ते + हूँ/है/हो/हैं — where the changing part marks the subject's gender and number rather than French's fixed person-and-family endings. Learn each French family's pattern once and you unlock hundreds of verbs — a bigger payoff than Hindi needs, since Hindi's single template already covers nearly everything.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
-ER verbs: the largest family (parler)
je parle, tu parles, il/elle/on parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent
मैं बोलता हूँ, तुम बोलते हो, वह बोलता/बोलती है, हम बोलते हैं, आप बोलते हैं, वे बोलते हैं
Over 90% of French verbs end in -er and follow this exact pattern: drop -er from the infinitive and add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. Notice je/tu/il/ils forms (parle, parles, parle, parlent) all sound identical despite different spellings — the ending is only heard in nous/vous. Hindi's बोलना conjugates completely differently: the person is carried by a separate auxiliary word (हूँ, है, हो, हैं) while the verb itself only shows gender and number (बोलता vs बोलती) — a distinction French verbs never make at all.
-IR verbs: the regular pattern (finir)
je finis, tu finis, il/elle/on finit, nous finissons, vous finissez, ils/elles finissent
मैं ख़त्म करता हूँ, तुम ख़त्म करते हो, वह ख़त्म करता/करती है, हम ख़त्म करते हैं, आप ख़त्म करते हैं, वे ख़त्म करते हैं
Regular -ir verbs like finir (to finish) and choisir (to choose) insert -iss- before the plural endings (-issons, -issez, -issent) — a telltale marker of this family, and a whole extra syllable French learners have to remember to add. Hindi has no equivalent infix: ख़त्म करना conjugates with the exact same ता/ती/ते + auxiliary template as every other Hindi verb, so Hindi never splits a group of verbs into two families based on one inserted syllable the way French separates finir-type verbs from vendre-type ones.
-RE verbs: the third family (vendre)
je vends, tu vends, il/elle/on vend, nous vendons, vous vendez, ils/elles vendent
मैं बेचता हूँ, तुम बेचते हो, वह बेचता/बेचती है, हम बेचते हैं, आप बेचते हैं, वे बेचते हैं
Regular -re verbs like vendre (to sell) and attendre (to wait) drop -re and add -s, -s, (nothing), -ons, -ez, -ent — notice the il/elle/on form has no ending at all, so vend is pronounced with the d silent, just 'vahn'. Hindi's बेचना needs no third pattern here either: it slots into the same universal ता/ती/ते template as बोलना and ख़त्म करना, so where French needs a whole separate ending set for vendre-type verbs, Hindi treats 'to sell' exactly like every other verb.
Irregular -ir verbs that break the -iss- pattern
dormir: je dors, tu dors, il dort, nous dormons, vous dormez, ils dorment
मैं सोता हूँ, तुम सोते हो, वह सोता/सोती है, हम सोते हैं, आप सोते हैं, वे सोते हैं
dormir (to sleep), sortir (to go out), and partir (to leave) end in -ir but conjugate completely differently from finir: the singular forms drop a consonant from the stem (dor-m-ir → je dors, not je dormis) and there's no -iss- anywhere. Hindi's सोना, by contrast, is perfectly regular by Hindi's own standard — it follows the same ता/ती/ते template as every verb above it. So where a French learner hits an unpredictable pothole with dormir, a Hindi speaker's instinct that conjugation 'should' be uniform is, if anything, closer to how Hindi itself actually works — making this French exception feel more foreign, not less.
manger keeps its 'e' before -ons
nous mangeons (not nous mangons)
हम खाते हैं
manger (to eat) is a regular -er verb, but nous mangons would make the g sound hard (like 'gone'), changing the pronunciation. French inserts an extra e — nous mangeons — purely to keep the g soft, matching all the other forms. Hindi's writing system doesn't need this kind of spelling patch: Devanagari is phonetic enough that a verb's spelling never has to shift mid-conjugation just to preserve a consonant's sound, so this is a purely French, script-driven quirk with nothing to compare it to in Hindi.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| French | Pronunciation | Hindi | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| parler | par-LAY | बोलनाbolnā | to speak (-er) |
| travailler | trah-vah-YAY | काम करनाkām karnā | to work (-er) |
| manger | mahn-ZHAY | खानाkhānā | to eat (-er, spelling quirk) |
| écouter | ay-koo-TAY | सुननाsunnā | to listen |
| regarder | ruh-gar-DAY | देखनाdekhnā | to watch/look at |
| finir | fee-NEER | ख़त्म करनाkhatm karnā | to finish (-ir, regular) |
| choisir | shwah-ZEER | चुननाcunnā | to choose (-ir, regular) |
| vendre | VAHN-druh | बेचनाbecnā | to sell (-re) |
| attendre | ah-TAHN-druh | इंतज़ार करनाintzār karnā | to wait (-re) |
| dormir | dor-MEER | सोनाsonā | to sleep (irregular -ir) |
| sortir | sor-TEER | बाहर जानाbāhar jānā | to go out (irregular -ir) |
| se réveiller | suh ray-vay-YAY | जागनाjāgnā | to wake up |
| le matin | luh mah-TAN | सुबहsubah | the morning |