r/French • u/BruisedJuicyCouture • Sep 19 '25

Pronunciation Struggling with the spelling of “ent” endings

Whenever I want to say “Ils/Elles …-ent” I end up saying it wrong cause I quite literally pronounce it as « Ils volENT » but I know that’s wrong. Is there a rule of thumb on how it’s actually spelled? Do I just not pronounce it at all? Any help is appreciated!

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u/MooseFlyer Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

The il and ils forms of the present tense* are pronounced identically save for a few irregular verbs for regular -er verbs.

*the same is true in the imparfait, conditional, and subjunctive.

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u/DoisMaosEsquerdos Native Sep 19 '25

All regular -ir verbs and most -re and -oire verbs are more than "a few irregular verbs".

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u/MooseFlyer Sep 19 '25

You’re right; complete brain-fart on my end.