In the present, not only are there stem changes, but the inflections are irregular as well:
Although the stem changes, the inflections of these tenses are as a regular -oir verb. These are imperfect av- /av/ present subjunctive ai- /ɛ/ future and conditional aur- /oʁ/ simple past and past subjunctive e- (not pronounced: eus, eusse are pronounced as bare inflections /y, ys/). This verb has different stems for different tenses. Here is the car he bought)Īs stand-alone verbs, the conjugation of the two auxiliaries is listed in the table below: il est tombé, elle est tombée, nous sommes tombés, elles sont tombées (he fell, she fell, we fell, they (fem.) fell).il a marché, elle a marché, nous avons marché (he walked, she walked, we walked).The participle is inflected with the use of the verb avoir according to the direct object, but only if the direct object precedes the participle, ex: When être is used, the participle is inflected according to the gender and number of the subject. Il a été mangé (It was eaten).Ĭompound tenses are conjugated with an auxiliary followed by the past participle, ex: j'ai fait (I did), je suis tombé (I fell). Être is itself conjugated according to the tense and mood, and this may require the use of avoir as an additional auxiliary verb, e.g. être is used to form the passive voice.Reflexive verbs (or "pronominal verbs") are conjugated with être.Intransitive verbs are conjugated with either avoir or être (see French verbs#Temporal auxiliary verbs).Transitive verbs (direct or indirect) in the active voice are conjugated with the verb avoir.There are two auxiliary verbs in French: avoir (to have) and être (to be), used to conjugate compound tenses according to these rules: Gerund: (constructed by preceding the present participle with the preposition en).Past: formed with an auxiliary verb in the present infinitive.Past (form 2): formed with an auxiliary verb in the imperfect subjunctive.Past (form 1): formed with an auxiliary verb in the present conditional.Past: formed with an auxiliary verb in the present imperative.Pluperfect: formed with an auxiliary verb in the subjunctive imperfect.Past ( passé): formed with an auxiliary verb in the subjunctive present.Future perfect ( futur antérieur): formed with an auxiliary verb in the simple future.
Past perfect ( passé antérieur): formed with an auxiliary verb in the simple past.Pluperfect ( plus-que-parfait): literally "more than perfect", formed with an auxiliary verb in the imperfect.Present perfect ( passé composé): literally "compound past", formed with an auxiliary verb in the present.Other tenses are constructed through the use of an auxiliary verb: Tenses are described under the mood to which they belong, and they are grouped as follows. The infinitive, participle, and gerundive are not verbal moods. There are seven different moods in French conjugation: indicative ( indicatif), subjunctive ( subjonctif), conditional ( conditionnel), imperative ( impératif), infinitive ( infinitif), participle ( participe), and gerund ( gérondif). 7 Inflectional endings of the three verb groups.6.1 First sub-conjugation: Verbs with seven principal parts.4 Second-group verbs ( -ir verbs / gerund ending in -issant).The verbs aller, envoyer, and renvoyer are the only verbs ending in -er belonging to the third group. The third group is considered a closed-class conjugation form, meaning that most new verbs introduced to the French language are of the first group ( téléviser, atomiser, radiographier), with the remaining ones being of the second group ( alunir). The first two groups follow a regular conjugation, whereas the third group is more complex. 1st section: verbs ending in -ir, with the gerund ending in -ant.3rd group: verbs ending in -re (with the exception of irregular verbs).2nd group: verbs ending in -ir, with the gerund ending in -issant.1st group: verbs ending in -er (except aller, envoyer, and renvoyer).However, a handful of verbs, including être, are highly irregular and the seven principal parts are not sufficient to conjugate the verb fully.įrench verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations ( conjugaisons) with the following grouping:
With the knowledge of these seven principal parts of a verb one can conjugate almost all French verbs. parler) however irregular verbs require the knowledge of more than just the infinitive form known as the principal parts of which there are seven in French. Most verbs are regular and can be entirely determined by their infinitive form (ex. For broader coverage of this topic, see French verbs.įrench conjugation refers to the variation in the endings of French verbs ( inflections) depending on the person (I, you, we, etc), tense (present, future, etc) and mood (indicative, imperative and subjunctive).