Catherine:	Tu es en tenue de sport, aujourd'hui. Tu prévois de courir après l'émission ?
Rylan:	Absolument. Je me suis fixé un objectif assez ambitieux….C'est décidé, dans un an je gravis le Mont-Blanc.
Catherine:	Le plus haut sommet des Alpes et l'un des plus hauts sommets d'Europe ! Tu m’ébahis. Pourquoi choisis-tu le Mont Blanc plutôt qu' un autre sommet, comme le Mont Whitney ?
Rylan:	Eh bien, comme tu l'as dit, le Mont Blanc est le toit de l'Europe. Le panorama y est incomparable.

There are three groups of verbs in French: The first group: The verbs end in “er” and follow the same conjugation except for “aller” which is a verb of the 3rd group. The second group: This group comprises all verbs that end in “ir” and which their present participle ends in “issant” For example: finir is a verb of the second group because it ends in “ir” and its present participle ends in “issant” : finissant The third group: comprises all the other verbs. We also call them “irregular verbs” because they don’t follow any specific conjugation. For example: prendre, tenir, voir, etc.

The verbs of the second group end in “ ir ”. For example: finir, investir, envahir, acceuillir, saisir

They all conjugate the same way.

For example: finir (to finish),

Je	finis
Tu	finis
Il /elle/ on	finit
Nous	finissons
Vous	finissez
Ils/elles	finissent

Attention: Not all verbs ending in “ir” belong to the second group, only those with the present participle (le participe présent) ending in issant.

For example:
The participe présent of the verb applaudir is applaudissant
Let’s look at the following example:

En applaudissant, l’audience montre qu’elle est d’accord avec le discours du Président.
By clapping, the audience shows that it agrees with the President’s speech.

The participe présent of “applaudir” is “ applaudissant”. It ends in “issant” so “applaudir” belongs to the second group.

Note that verbs such as: partir, sortir, intervenir, tenir and many other verbs, though they end in “ir”, they don’t belong to the second group because their participe présent doesn’t end in “issant”.

Their participe présent is respectively:

partir - partant
sortir- sortant
intervenir - intervenant
tenir - tenant

These verbs belong to the 3rd group which we will study in the next grammar lesson.