Conjugating the French Verb "Manger" "to Eat" (2024)

Mangeris a regular French -er verb, but it is also aspelling-change verb. This means that it takes all the regular -er endings, but a small spelling change is made to the stem for consistency of pronunciation. The stem:the infinitive manger minus the -er ending, which leaves the stem mang-. All endings are added to this stem.

Spelling-Change Verb

Here's how the spelling change works: Verbs likemangerthat end in-gerchange spelling slightly before endings that begin with thehard vowelsaoro. Becausegfollowed byaoromakes a hardgsound (as in gold),anehas to be added aftergto keep asoftg(like thejinje). In short, wherever thegis not followed by ane, anemust be inserted so that thegremains soft throughout the conjugations.

For example, in thepresent tenseand theimperative, thisg-to-gespelling change is found only in thenousconjugation:mangeons. It is needed for thepresent participle,mangeant, but not for thepast participle,mangé.

Itoccurs in the following tenses/moods:

• Imperfect:singular conjugations plus the third person plural
• Passé simple:all conjugations except the third person plural
• Imperfect subjunctive:all conjugations

There is no spelling change in theconditional,futureorsubjunctive.The table below summarizes the spelling change conjugations.You might want to take a look atmanger conjugated in all tensesto get the full picture of how often aneis needed after eachg.

Use and Expressions ofManger

The food-conscious French haveplenty of expressions using manger.Note that in familiar, everyday language, people frequently use the synonym bouffer,another regular -er verb that means "to eat," as in On a bien bouffé.("The food was great." / "We ate well.") Here are a few expressions with manger:

• Elle mange de tout:She eats everything
• On en mangerait:It looks good enough to eat (Notice how much meaning was conveyed here by the simple use of the conditional)
• manger de la vache enragée:to have a hard time of it
• Il a mangé du lion aujourd'hui:He's full of beans today
• Il ne mange pas de ce pain-là:That's not his cup of tea
• Elle est mignonne.On le mangerait!She's so cute; I could eat her up!
• On peut toujours essayer; ça ne mange pas de pain:We can always try; it won't cost us anything
• manger à sa faim:to eat one's fill
• Je veux à manger:I want something to eat
• As-tu eu assez à manger?Did you get enough to eat?
• Que veux-tu que je fasse à manger ce soir?What would you like me to cook / make for dinner tonight?

Conjugations of Manger