Talk about what others do: -er verbs 3rd persons singular and plural | French

Starter quiz

Match the French subject pronouns to the English.
- je/j'
  
  ⇔
  
  I ✓
- tu
  
  ⇔
  
  you ✓
- il/elle
  
  ⇔
  
  he/she ✓
- nous
  
  ⇔
  
  we ✓
- ils/elles
  
  ⇔
  
  they ✓
Match the French -er verbs to the English.
- trouver
  
  ⇔
  
  to find, finding ✓
- regarder
  
  ⇔
  
  to watch, watching ✓
- jouer
  
  ⇔
  
  to play, playing ✓
- rester
  
  ⇔
  
  to stay, staying ✓
- passer
  
  ⇔
  
  to spend, spending (time) ✓
- étudier
  
  ⇔
  
  to study, studying ✓
Which of these verbs are in their infinitive form?
- écoutons
- jouer ✓
- mange
- trouvent
- préparer ✓
Which of the following words are nouns?
- le chien ✓
- ils
- nous
- les femmes ✓
- le garçon ✓
Match the French sentences with their English translation.
- Il écoute la radio.
  
  ⇔
  
  He listens to the radio. ✓
- Nous écoutons la radio.
  
  ⇔
  
  We listen to the radio. ✓
- Ils écoutent la radio.
  
  ⇔
  
  They listen to the radio. ✓
- Elle porte un uniforme.
  
  ⇔
  
  She wears a uniform. ✓
- Nous portons un uniforme.
  
  ⇔
  
  We wear a uniform. ✓
- Elles portent un uniforme.
  
  ⇔
  
  They wear a uniform. ✓
Translate the following sentence into French by matching the correct pronouns with the rest of the sentences below. 'He watches the TV, she studies history, we prepare lunch, they play outside.'
- Il
  
  ⇔
  
  regarde la télé ✓
- elle
  
  ⇔
  
  étudie l'histoire ✓
- nous
  
  ⇔
  
  préparons le déjeuner ✓
- ils
  
  ⇔
  
  jouent dehors. ✓

Exit quiz

Match the sentence in French with their English sentence type.
- A 'he' sentence.
  
  ⇔
  
  Il joue au foot. ✓
- A 'she' sentence'
  
  ⇔
  
  Elle travaille dehors. ✓
- A 'we' sentence.
  
  ⇔
  
  Nous écoutons la professeure. ✓
Match the correct form of 'aimer' to the rest of the sentence in order to translate the following: he likes studying, she likes listening to the radio, we like working at home, they like watching TV.
- Il aime
  
  ⇔
  
  étudier ✓
- elle aime
  
  ⇔
  
  écouter la radio ✓
- nous aimons
  
  ⇔
  
  travailler à la maison ✓
- ils aiment
  
  ⇔
  
  regarder la télé. ✓
Choose the name/s that could replace the subject pronoun in each sentence.
- Il écoute le chanteur.
  
  ⇔
  
  Amir ✓
- Elle joue au foot.
  
  ⇔
  
  Léa ✓
- Ils préparent le déjeuner.
  
  ⇔
  
  Amir et Léa ✓
- Elles mangent à l'école.
  
  ⇔
  
  Léa et Sophie ✓
Another way of describing the 'il/elle' and 'ils/elles' forms of a verb is...
- 1st persons singular/plural.
- 2nd persons singular/plural.
- 3rd persons singular/plural. ✓
Pick the reasons why we do not hear the difference between the 3rd person singular and the 3rd person plural of -er verbs.
- The ending to 'il/elle' verbs is an SFe. ✓
- Liaison.
- Intonation.
- The 's' of ils and elles is an SFC. ✓
- The -ent ending of 3rd person plural -er verbs is silent. ✓
Choose the noun that best replaces the subject pronoun in each sentence (the sentence also needs to make sense!).
- Le chien
  
  ⇔
  
  joue à la maison. ✓
- Les chiens
  
  ⇔
  
  marchent avec les filles. ✓
- Le garçon
  
  ⇔
  
  prépare le déjeuner. ✓
- Les filles
  
  ⇔
  
  étudient l'histoire. ✓

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Lesson Details

Key learning points

For 'she, he' + verb in French, the verb ends in -e, 'nous' + verb the ending is -ons and for 'ils, elles' it's -ent.
The 'she, he' form of the verb is called the 3rd person singular, the 'they' form is the 3rd person plural.
We can use a name or a noun in the place of a pronoun before the verb e.g. 'le garçon' or 'David' instead of 'il'.
It is difficult to distinguish between the 'il, elle' and the 'ils, elles' verb forms because they sound the same.
If a singular/plural noun is used before the 3rd person singular/plural, the article helps us to identify the verb form.

Common misconception

I still need to use the subject pronoun even if I am using a name or a noun before the verb form.

A noun or name can replace a subject pronoun. So 'ils chantent ensemble' could be changed to 'les garçons chantent ensemble' or 'David, Robert et Jacques chantent ensemble'.

Keywords

3rd person singular - the 'she, he' form of the verb
3rd person plural - the 'they' form of the verb