What are the basic french verbs?

In english and french what is the difference between verbs infinitive and conjugative?

• Neither in my highschool or college english classes did we ever spend much time on grammar. What is the difference (in both english and in the language I am learning, french) between verbs infinitive and verbs conjugative. Use examples please.

• Answer:

  The difference between an infinitive verb and a conjugated verb is: .The infinitive verb stands on its own; e.g. parler, which means "to speak". .The conjugated verb has a subject which changes the spelling of the infinitve verb to a spelling which goes with a given subject in front of the verb; e.g. Je parle - "I speak" You can see that the "r" of the infinitive parler has been dropped because the verb has a subject; i.e. Je meaning "I". Just as in English, in French there are rules for infinitive verb spelling changes when there is a subject in front of a verb., These spelling changes depend upon which kind of verb action is being expressed; viz. present, past, future or some other tense or mood. Verbs are categorised in groups with different endings which have corresponding rules. The way to learn these is to separate the verb stem (the first part of the verb) from its ending; e.g. for parler: stem - parl ending - er When you attach a subject, you add a given ending to the stem. For the example with parler: je parle, e is the correct ending for the je subject which is added to "parl", the stem. The stem and ending rules can best be learned by looking at a well set out grammar chart then looking at simple sentences which show the way the verbs work in a sentence or paragraph. Start with simple examples in grammar books. Try the BBC online French language instruction which my students have found helpful.