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How do you use aimer?

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Let's break it down...

This summer, you are taking a summer French program in Lyon. When getting to know the people in your class, you’ll want to talk about things you like. As you saw, to say I like, you use the phrase j’aime.

woman walking on bridge
Est-ce que tu aimes prendre des photos à Lyon?

Je t'aime is an expression many people know from French movies or songs. It means I love you. But the verb aimer in French can mean “to like” or “to love” depending on the context.

To conjugate the verb aimer, you do the following:

  1. Take off the -er ending to get the stem.

    aimer - er = aim.

  2. Add on the verb ending that agrees with the subject of the sentence.

Here's how the verb aimer looks when conjugated in the present tense. Listen to how it's pronounced.

AIMER
j’aime nous aimons
tu aimes vous aimez
il/ elle aime ils/ elles aiment

Par exemple:

Est-ce que tu aimes le chocolat? Do you like chocolate?
Oui, j’aime le chocolat. Yes, I like chocolate.
J’aime le cinéma! I love the movies!
Il aime skier. He likes skiing.
Nous aimons faire la cuisine! We love cooking!

Aimer is one of the most common French verbs. Because it is a regular -er verb, so conjugations follow a set pattern, without any exceptions. You’ll learn more about regular verbs in an upcoming lesson.

Out in Lyon, you might be invited to a nice French dinner or a movie, so you’ll need to know how to say what you do and don't like. Here are some examples of how to change affirmative statements with the verb aimer into negative ones.

Elle aime le chien. She likes the dog.
Elle n'aime pas le chien. She doesn't like the dog.
J’aime jouer du piano. I like to play piano.
Je n’aime pas jouer du piano. I don’t like to play the piano.
Ils aiment le français. They like French.
Ils n’aiment pas le français. They don’t like French.

In French, negation has two parts ne and pas. To make a statement negative, use a negation sandwich: ne + conjugated verb + pas.

Make the following statement negative: Vous aimez faire du ski.

  1. Vous ne pas aimez faire du ski.
  2. Vous n’aimez pas faire du ski.
  3. Vous ne aimez pas faire du ski.
  4. Vous aimez ne faire pas du ski.

Summary

Questions answered correctly:

Questions answered incorrectly: