And they all lived happily ever after, one conjugation at a time.

Être, meanwhile, thought Parler was boring. “Rules are for furniture,” he’d scoff. “I am je suis today, but tomorrow? Who knows? Maybe je serai (future tense of être)!”

One day, a disaster struck the Rue des Verbes. A lost English sentence wandered into the street. It was confused and couldn’t find its way home. “Help me!” it cried. “I need to say: I spoke to my friend. ”

For I spoke : “ J’ai parlé ,” they said together. (Using avoir – an irregular verb – plus the past participle of a regular verb). For I went : “ Je suis allé ,” they said. (Using être – the irregular verb – plus the past participle of the irregular verb aller ).