Can You Remember 100 French Words?

Of course, you can learn thousands of French verbs conjugated in all tenses and all moods. Have a nice day! You'd rather choose the easiest way.
We start at the point when you have already learnt the auxiliary verbs (être and avoir) and the 2 semi-auxiliary verbs (aller and faire) by heart. You cannot do without.
The verbs that end with -er in the infinitive form, despite a small variation of spelling in the stems of appeler and jeter, follow the same pattern. Learn chanter, for example, and you know how to conjugate 90% of the French verbs.
But truly, you know far more than that: endings are pretty regular in French conjugations. The variations that affect non -er verbs alter the stems. Having learnt chanter, you already know their endngs.
Here come the 100 words to learn.
You need to know 5 forms in order to be able to retrieve all other forms. There are 20 verbs whose stem changes and that you have to know by heart, because they are common. Do the math: 5x20=100.
The primary forms to learn are: first persons (singular and plural) in the present of indicative, first person in the future, first person in the subjunctive, and the past participle.
It may be easier with an example: DIRE
Je dis, nous disons, je dirai, (que) je dise, dit.
It's enough to build up the whole conjugation, since, as writen above, the endings are regular.
Yes, you know them: we started from the point when you already knew how to conjugate avoir, aller, etc.
To conjugate any verbs in any past tenses, what you need to know is how to conjugate the auxiliary verbs. Then, you add the past participle. To conjugate in the passive voice, what you need to know is how to conjugate the verb être. Then, you add the past participle. It is always the same pattern. Just follow it.
Click for an overview of French conjugation made easy.