The verb commencer is an example of a group of spelling change verbs whose infinitive ends in c e r. Here are a few more examples: déranger (to disturb), juger (to judge), nager (to swim), partager (to share), ranger (to arrange, put in order), songer (to dream), and voyager (to travel). The same is true for all other verbs whose infinitive ends in g e r. I eat -is je mange, but we eat -is nous mangeons. While the verb manger is in most ways quite regular, in the first person plural (nous) of the present tense, we must remember to place an e before the o n s ending in order to preserve the soft g sound.
A couple of examples are manger (to eat), and commencer (to begin). We will now look at a few E R verbs that have spelling changes in their stem.