French verbs are a complex area of French grammar, with a conjugation scheme that allows for three finite moods (with anywhere from one to five synthetic tenses), three non-finite moods, three voices, and two aspects. A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... French has a grammar similar to that of the other Romance languages. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... In linguistics, grammatical aspect is a property of a verb that defines the nature of temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...

Classification

In terms of conjugation, French verbs are classified by the endings on their infinitive forms: an "-er verb," for example, is a verb ending in -er. Traditionally there are three verb classes: "premier groupe", "deuxième groupe" and "troisième groupe". "Premier groupe" verbs (first group) end in "-er" and follow a regular conjugation table with one exception: "aller" (to go). "Deuxième groupe" verbs end in "-ir" but not all verbs ending in "-ir" belong to "deuxième groupe", to distinguish them, "deuxième groupe" verbs follow "-is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent" (I, you - singular, he, we, you - plural, they) when conjugated in the present tense of the indicative mood. Other verbs can end in "-ir", "-oir" and "re" and are all considered "troisième groupe" verbs. All irregular verbs belong to this last group. The great majority of verbs are -er verbs, but there are many -ir verbs, and a few -re verbs. Historically, these groups descend from Latin's -are, -ire, and -ere verbs, respectively. In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

In most -ir verbs, the suffix -ir becomes the infix -iss- in parts of the conjugation; this infix descends from Latin's inchoative infix -isc-, which is also the root of Italian's -isc- and Romanian's -esc-. From the French infix -iss-, English derives several inchoative verbs ending in -ish, such as finish (from finir), polish (from polir), and nourish (from nourrir). Suffix has meanings in linguistics, nomenclature and computer science. ... Infix has meanings in linguistics, mathematics and computer science, and chemistry. ... Inchoative aspect is a verbal category, referring to an action soon to take place. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Most verbs are conjugated by adding various endings to the verb stem, where the stem is obtained by removing the ending from the infinitive; however, -er, -ir, and -re verbs are all conjugated differently from one another, and there are many irregular verbs. The choice of ending to add depends on the subject's person (first, second, or third person) and number (singular or plural), as well as on the verb's own mood, tense, and aspect. However, many endings will be the same for multiple verb forms, or will be homophones (spelled differently, but pronounced the same), such that subject pronouns are obligatory in modern French: without the pronouns, "je chante" ("I sing") and "il chante" ("he sings") would be indistinguishable, and in speech, both would be indistinguishable from "tu chantes" ("you sing"). However, in speech, "il chante" ("he sings") and "ils chantent" ("they sing") are indistinguishable. In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... Third person redirects here, but can also mean: Third Person, a New York City improvising trio A perspective (storytelling) Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, grammatical aspect is a property of a verb that defines the nature of temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... Homonyms (in Greek homoios = identical and onoma = name) are words which have the same form (orthographic/phonetic) but unrelated meaning. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a word that usually takes the place of a noun or noun phrase that was previously mentioned (such as she, it) or that refers to something or someone (I, me, you). Pronouns are often one of the basic parts of speech of the...

Moods

As with English verbs, French verbs are conjugated in three moods: an indicative (l'indicatif), an imperative (l'impératif), and a subjunctive (le subjonctif). While the rules that determine the correct mood are quite complex, they are simplified and summarized in the following table: The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that is subjective, from the persons viewpoint, that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), emotion, possibility, judgment, necessity and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

Many linguists consider a fourth mood, the conditional (le conditionnel), which is used in almost exactly the same circumstances as the conditional in English. In French, « Je le ferais si j'avais assez de temps » is "I would do it if I had enough time" in English. Other linguists consider the conditional to be a specific tense within the indicative mood. The two camps do not disagree in the rules for when and how to use the conditional. A clause is a group of words consisting of a subject and a predicate, although, in non-finite clauses, the subject is often not explicitly given. ... The conditional mood (sometimes described as the conditional tense) is a verb form in many languages, in which a verb root is modified to form verb tenses, moods, or aspects expressing degrees of certainty or uncertainty and hypothesis about past, present, or future. ...

Tenses and aspects

Tenses and aspects of the indicative mood

The indicative mood has five "simple" (synthetic) tenses: the present (le présent), the simple past (le passé simple), the imperfect (l'imparfait), the future (le futur), and the conditional (le conditionnel). Note that, as discussed above, the conditional can be considered a separate mood completely, rather than a tense of the indicative. The use of the various tenses is described in the following table: A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... îThe Passé Simple Tense, also called the Preterite, is an uncommonly used tense in French. ...

Additionally, the indicative has five compound (two-word) tenses, each of which results from applying the perfect aspect (e.g., "have done") to one of the above simple tenses. These tenses are used to indicate events prior to the corresponding simple tenses; for example, « À ce moment-là, il se souvint de ce qu'il avait promis » ("At that moment, he remembered what he had promised"). In addition, except in literature or very formal speeches, the present perfect is used in modern French wherever the simple past would have been used in older or more literary writing. Since this use is much more common than its use as a true present perfect, it is usually called the compound past (le passé composé). Further, where older or more literary French would have used the perfect aspect of the simple past tense (le passé antérieur), modern non-literary French uses the pluperfect (le plus-que-parfait; the perfect aspect of the imperfect tense), or sometimes a new form called the surcomposé (literally, "over-compound"), which re-applies the perfect aspect to the compound past, resulting in a structure like « Je l'ai eu fait » (literally, "I've had done it"). The term protasis refers to the introductory part of a piece of dramatic literature, usually the first act. ... An apodosis is a conditional concluding clause. ... In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ... The perfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. ... The aorist aspect was one of the three original aspects that defined the Indo-European verbal paradigm. ... The imperfective aspect, sometimes known as the continuous or progressive aspect, is a grammatical aspect. ... The perfect aspect is a grammatical aspect, which refers to a state resulting from a previous action (also described as a previous action with relevance to a particular time, or a previous action viewed from the perspective of a later time). ...

Unlike English or Spanish, French does not mark for a continuous aspect. Thus, "I am doing it" (continuous) and "I do it" (not) both translate to the same sentence in French: « Je le fais. » However, this information is often clear from context; and when not, it can be conveyed using periphrasis; for example, the expression être en train de [faire quelque chose] ("to be in the middle of [doing something]") is often used to convey the sense of a continuous aspect. (For example, "I'm doing it" might be expressed as « Je suis en train de le faire », "I'm in the middle of doing it.") In the case of the past tense, neither the simple nor the compound past tense is ever used with a continuous sense; therefore, the imperfect often indicates a continuous sense (though it does have other uses, as discussed above). In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ... Periphrasis is a figure of speech where the meaning of a word or phrase is expressed by many or several words. ...

Present Tense

This is a basic table of how you would conjugate REGULAR verbs. There are many irregular verbs to watch out for! If in doubt look in a French-English Dictionary.

For Verbs Ending in ER(example conjugated with the verb Parler, to speak)

(Je) Parle
(Tu) Parles
(Il/Elle/On) Parle
(Nous) Parlons
(Vous) Parlez
(Ils/Elles) Parlont

For Verbs Ending in IR(example conjugated with the verb Mourir, to die)

(Je) Mouris
(Tu) Mouris
(Il/Elle/On) Mourit
(Nous) Mourissons
(Vous) Mourissez
(Ils/Elles) Mourissent

For Verbs Ending in RE(example conjugated with the verb Perdre, to lose)

(Je) Perds
(Tu) Perdis
(Il/Elle/On) Perd(no ending)
(Nous) Perdons
(Vous) Perdez
(Ils/Elles) Perdent

Tenses and aspects of the subjunctive mood

The subjunctive mood has only two simple tenses: a present (le présent du subjonctif) and an imperfect (l'imparfait du subjonctif). Of these, only the present is used nowadays; like the simple past indicative, the imperfect subjunctive is only found in older and more literary works. When both tenses are used, there is no difference in meaning between the two; the present is used in subordinate clauses whose main clauses are in a present or future tense, as well as in the few main clauses that use the subjunctive, and the imperfect is used in subordinate clauses whose main clauses are in a past tense (other than present perfect). Except in literature and very formal speeches, modern French uses the present subjunctive wherever an older or more literary work would use the imperfect.

As with the indicative, the subjunctive also has one compound tense for each simple tense. The difference between the present perfect subjunctive (le passé du subjonctif) and the pluperfect subjunctive (le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif) is analogous to the difference between the present subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive; of the two, only the present perfect subjunctive is found in modern French.

Tenses and aspects in other verb forms

The tenses and aspects of other verb forms are mostly as in English, except for the lack of a continuous aspect marking:

• The imperative only has a present tense, with a rarely-used perfect aspect: "fais-le" means "do it," while "aie-le fait" means "have done it."
• The infinitive has a present tense, with a perfect aspect: "faire" means "to do," while "avoir fait" means "to have done."
• There is a present participle, with a perfect aspect: "faisant" means "doing," while "ayant fait" means "having done." As noted above, this participle is not used in forming a continuous aspect. Further, it cannot be used as a noun, in the way that present participles in English have the same form as gerunds; the only noun verbal is the infinitive.
• There is a separate past participle: "fait" means "done." As in English, it can be used in the passive voice, in the perfect aspect, or on its own as an adjective. The past participle has no perfect aspect, except arguably in the special surcomposée tense described above.
• There is a gérondif ("gerundive," but different from the Latin gerundive), formed with the clitic en and the present participle: "en faisant" means "by doing" or "while doing." (It is analogous to the English "in doing," but in English, since "doing" can act as a noun, "in doing" is taken as a prepositional phrase rather than as a separate verb form. That interpretation is not available for "en faisant.") Similarly, "en ayant fait" means "by having done."

In linguistics, a participle is a verbal adjective. ... In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... In linguistics, a clitic is a word that syntactically functions as a free morpheme, but phonetically appears as a bound morpheme; it is always pronounced with a following or preceding word. ...

Compound-tense auxiliary verbs

In French, all compound tenses are formed with an auxiliary verb (either être "to be" or avoir "to have"). Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are fourteen commonly used verbs of motion or change of state, as well as their derivatives, and all reflexive verbs. Those fourteen verbs, plus three common compounds, are: In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object) are the same. ...

• monter¹ - to climb/go up
• rester - to stay
• sortir¹ - to go out
• venir - to come
  • (devenir - to become)
  • (revenir - to get back)
• aller - to go
• naître - to be born
• descendre¹ - to go down
• entrer - to enter
  • (rentrer - to return)
• retourner - to send back/ to return
• tomber - to fall
• arriver - to arrive
• mourir - to die
• partir - to leave or part
• (passer¹ - to pass by)

¹ If these verbs have direct objects, they are conjugated with avoir.

As is implied above, these verbs spell the mnemonic "Mrs. Vandertamp" (or "Dr Mrs Vandertramp" if the three compounds are included). A mnemonic (pronounced in American English, in British English) is a memory aid. ...

You may also remember these verbs by remembering the following mnemonic device (opposites)

• A rriver - Partir
• D escendre - Retourner
• V enir - Aller
• E ntrer - Rester
• N aitre - Mourir
• T omber - Entrer

• Rentrer
• Passer
• Revenir

In some other Romance languages, such as Italian, this exact same distinction is made between the two auxiliary verbs. The semantic basis for it lies in the quality of the subject; where the subject is not an active agent or initiator of the action or change (that is, when it is an unaccusative verb) the auxiliary être is used. The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... An unaccusative verb is a special kind of intransitive verb, which is distinguished semantically by the fact that its subject does not actively initiate or is not actively responsible for the action of the verb; rather, it has properties which it shares with the direct object of a transitive verb...

The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is also essential to the agreement of the past participle.

Past participles

The past participle is used in French both as an adjective and to form all the compound tenses of the language. When it is used as an adjective, it follows all the regular adjective agreement rules, but when it is used in compound tenses, it follows special agreement rules.

The rules of agreement for past participles differ for avoir verbs and être verbs. For avoir verbs, the past participle does not agree with the subject, but it will agree with a direct object that comes before the verb, either in the form of a pronoun or a relative clause using que: « Elles ont mangé les fraises que j'avais cueillies. Elles les ont mangées. » In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ...

For the fourteen commonly used être verbs, the past participle always agrees with the subject in gender (masc or fem) AND number (sing/plural): « Elles sont parties. »

For reflexive verbs, the past participle agrees with the direct object of the sentence if the direct object is a reflexive pronoun. For most sentences, the past participle agrees with the subject. For example, in « Elles se sont lavées, » the direct object is se, referring to the feminine third-person plural elles; therefore, -es is added for agreement. However, in sentences such as « Elles se sont lavé les mains, » the direct object is les mains, not se and nothing is added to the past participle. In sentences with reflexive pronouns as indirect objects, the past participle never agrees; there is no agreement in « Elles se sont parlé » because se replaces à elles-mêmes in the construction parler à quelqu'un ("talk to someone").

Conjugation

Main article: French verb conjugation It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Morphology of the French verb. ...

Each of the three groups of verbs (grouped by endings: -er, -ir, and -re) are conjugated differently. French verbs are conjugated by isolating the stem of the verb (usually by dropping the ending) and adding an ending. The ending depends on the mood, tense, and voice of the verb, as well as on the person and number of its subject.

For example, to conjugate parler ("to talk") in the third-person singular present indicative ("talks," "is talking"), one first removes the -er, leaving parl-, then adds the appropriate ending, in this case -e, resulting in parle.

External links

• Open source database of French verb conjugation rules