French

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deviner (deviner) [deu-vi-nay] Present

🔊 In the app, every line has its own play button: the conjugated form is spoken together with its pronoun. So are the infinitive and the example sentence. Speed adjustable from 50% to 150%.

💡 Memory hook
Deviner is regular -er, just like parler: no stem changes to worry about.

⚠️ Worth knowing
«Une devinette» (a riddle) comes from the same family as deviner — a nice word pair to remember together.

💬 Example sentence
Présent: Je devine la réponse. (I guess the answer.)

• Just like English, French always requires the subject pronoun (je, tu, il...): you can't just say «Suis», you must say «Je suis» - but the reason matters more for an English speaker: many French verb endings are pronounced identically across different persons, unlike English (I am / you are / he is, which all sound different), so the pronoun is the only clue to who is speaking.
• In French, many final letters are silent: «parlent» (ils/elles parlent) ends in «-ent» but is pronounced exactly like «parle» (il/elle parle) - a useful thing to know since English speakers often expect a written difference to signal a spoken one, and French frequently breaks that expectation for verb endings.
• In spoken French, «on» very often replaces «nous» (we): «on parle» instead of «nous parlons» - but watch out, «on» keeps the «il/elle» conjugation (on parle, not on parlons), not the «nous» form.
• Many French verbs exist in two versions: without a pronoun when the action concerns another thing or person, and with SE when you do it to yourself, often by accident. For example: «couper» (to cut something) versus «se couper» (to cut oneself, to injure oneself); «brûler» (to burn/to burn something) versus «se brûler» (to burn oneself); «cogner» (to hit something) versus «se cogner» (to bump oneself); «piquer» (to prick/sting something) versus «se piquer» (to prick oneself). The pronoun SE is the signal that the action is directed at oneself.
• French regular verbs fall into three conjugation groups based on their infinitive ending, and knowing the group tells you which endings to expect: -ER verbs (the largest and most regular group, e.g. «parler»), -IR verbs (with two subtypes: some insert an -iss- infix, like «finir» → nous finissons, while others don't, like «partir» → nous partons), and -RE verbs (e.g. «vendre»).
• Compound tenses like the passé composé and plus-que-parfait are formed with an auxiliary verb, either AVOIR or ÊTRE - similar to how English sometimes uses 'have' (I have eaten). Most French verbs take AVOIR, but a specific set of movement/state verbs (often remembered with the mnemonic 'DR MRS VANDERTRAMP': devenir, revenir, monter, rester, sortir, venir, aller, naître, descendre, entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, arriver, mourir, partir) plus all reflexive/pronominal SE-verbs (see the note above) take ÊTRE instead - and with ÊTRE, the past participle usually agrees in gender and number with the subject, unlike anything in English.
• The subjunctive mood (subjonctif) isn't optional or free-choice the way it can feel in English, where it's rare and often unmarked (e.g. 'I suggest that he go') - in French it's triggered automatically by certain expressions of necessity, wish, doubt, or emotion, such as «il faut que», «je veux que», «je doute que», or «bien que». If the main clause uses one of these, the following verb must be in the subjunctive, regardless of how certain or uncertain the actual situation really is.