French: -yer verbs, present indicative

Self-tutoring about French: the tutor mentions verbs with the ending pattern -yer.

The following is according to my understanding.

Appuyer, which means “to support,” might seem at first to be a regular -er verb. Perhaps, unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

Appuyer follows the pattern of several other French verbs that end with -yer: when followed by a silent e, the y turns to i. Therefore, its present indicative conjugation is j’appuie, tu appuies, il/elle appuie, nous appuyons, vous appuyez, ils/elles appuient. Nettoyer (to clean) and envoyer (to send) seem to follow the same pattern.

Apparently, verbs that end in -ayer can conjugate as mentioned above, but also have another arrangement besides. That’s perhaps for another post.

Source:

Dubois, M-M, Keen, D.J., Shuey, B., Corbeil, J-C, Crocker, L.G. (1983). Larousse’s French-English Dictionary. Pocket Books New York.