In
French grammar,
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s are a part of speech. Each verb
lexeme
A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms ta ...
has a collection of
finite and
non-finite forms in its
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
*Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
*Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
*Complex conjugation, the change o ...
scheme.
Finite forms depend on grammatical
tense and
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
/
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
. There are eight simple
tense–aspect–mood forms, categorized into the
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence
Dec ...
,
subjunctive
The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
and
imperative mood
The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request.
The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. They are sometimes called ' ...
s, with the
conditional mood
The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
sometimes viewed as an additional category. The eight simple forms can also be categorized into four tenses (future, present, past, and future-of-the-past), or into two
aspects (
perfective and
imperfective
The imperfective (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ...
).
The three non-finite moods are the
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
,
past participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
, and
present participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
.
There are
compound constructions that use more than one verb. These include one for each simple tense with the addition of or as an auxiliary verb. There is also a construction which is used to distinguish
passive voice
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing ...
from
active voice
Active voice is a grammatical voice prevalent in many of the world's languages. It is the default voice for clauses that feature a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most Indo-European languages
...
.
Conjugation
French verbs are
conjugated by isolating the stem of the verb and adding an ending. In the first and second conjugation, the stem is easily identifiable from the
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
, and remains essentially constant throughout the paradigm. For example, the stem of ("speak") is ''parl-'' and the stem of ("finish") is ''fin-''. In the third group, the relationship between the infinitive form and the stem is less consistent, and several distinct stems are needed to produce all the forms in the paradigm. For example, the verb ("drink") has the stems ''boi-'', ''boiv-'', ''bu-'', and ''buv-''.
The ending depends on the
mood,
tense,
aspect, and
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...
of the verb, as well as on the
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
and
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
of its
subject. Every conjugation exhibits some degree of
syncretism
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...
, where the same (homophonous, and possibly also homographic) form is used to realize distinct combinations of grammatical features. This is most noticeable for ''-er'' verbs. For instance, the conjugated form ''parle'' can be the 1st or 3rd person singular indicative or subjunctive form of ''parler'', or the singular familiar imperative. Furthermore, the 2nd person singular indicative and subjunctive form ''parles'' and the 3rd person plural form ''parlent'' are pronounced the same way as ''parle'' (except in
liaison contexts). The prevalence of syncretism in conjugation paradigms is one functional explanation for the fact that French does not allow
null subjects, unlike most of the other Romance languages.
Classification
Aside from and (considered categories unto themselves), French verbs are traditionally grouped into three ''conjugation classes'' (''groupes''):
*The first conjugation class consists of all verbs with infinitives ending in ''-er'', except for the irregular verb and (by some accounts) the irregular verbs and ;
[Langue française-Questions courantes](_blank)
the verbs in this conjugation, which together constitute the great majority of French verbs, are all conjugated similarly, though there are a number of subclasses with minor changes arising from orthographical and phonological considerations.
*The second conjugation class consists of all verbs with infinitives in ''-ir'' or ''-ïr'' and present participles in ''-issant'' or ''-ïssant'', as well as the verb . There are somewhat over 300 such verbs, all conjugated identically, with some minor exceptions. The ''-iss-'' or ''-ïss-'' in much of their conjugation is a reflex of the Latin
inchoative infix ''-isc-''/''-esc-'', but does not retain any
aspectual semantics.
*The third conjugation class consists of all other verbs: ''aller'', arguably ''(r)envoyer'', a number of verbs in ''-ir'' (including all verbs in ''-oir'', which is an etymologically unrelated ending), and all verbs in ''-re''. Nonetheless, this class is very small compared to the other two, though it does contain some of the most common verbs. This class has a few dozen subclasses, often differing substantially; indeed, this class is essentially a catch-all for verbs, besides and , that do not fit into the first two classes. There are about 370 verbs in this group, though a much smaller number are still in frequent use.
Moods
As with English verbs, French verbs have both
non-finite moods (''les modes impersonnels''), also called verbals, and
finite ones (''les modes personnels'').
Finite moods
The finite moods are the indicative (''l'indicatif''), the imperative (''l'impératif''), and the
subjunctive
The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
(''le subjonctif''). As discussed below, sometimes the conditional is recognized as a fourth mood. While the rules that determine the correct mood are quite complex, they are simplified and summarized in the following table:
Many linguists recognize 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. The conditional can also be used
evidentially, to express reservations about the verb: « Il ''serait'' suivi par un psychologue », "He ''is apparently/is said to be/''
tc.under the care of a psychologist." Other linguists consider the conditional to be a tense of the indicative mood. The two camps do not disagree on the rules for when and how to use the conditional. A third camp recognizes both "conditionnel présent/conditionnel passé" (for use in conditional sentences), and "indicatif futur du passé / indicatif futur antérieur du passé" (for tense concords, "future from a past point of view"; e.g. « Il m'a dit qu'il le ''ferait'' le lendemain », "He told me he ''would do'' it the next day"), but they recognize also that both are conjugated the same.
Non-finite moods
*The infinitive has a present tense, with a perfect: "faire" means "to do", while "avoir fait" means "to have done".
*There is a present
participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
, with a perfect construction: "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
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
s; the only verbal noun is the infinitive.
**There is a ''gérondif'' ("gerundive", but different from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
gerundive), formed with the
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic ( , backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
''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".
*There is a separate past participle: "fait" means "done". As in English, it can be used in the passive voice, in the perfect form, or on its own as an adjective. The past participle has no perfect, except arguably in the special ''surcomposé'' tense.
Tenses and aspects
Tenses and aspects of the indicative mood
The indicative mood has five "simple" (
synthetic) tense-aspect forms, conveying four tenses (times of action) (future, present, past, and future-of-past) and two aspects (fabrics of time) (
perfective, conveying an action viewed in its entirety without its time frame being considered in more detail, and
imperfective
The imperfective (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ...
, conveying an action that occurs repeatedly or continuously). The tense-aspect forms of the indicative mood in French are called the present (''le présent'': present tense, imperfective aspect), the simple past (''le
passé simple'': past tense, perfective aspect), the
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
(''l'imparfait'': past tense, imperfective aspect), the future (''le futur'': future tense, unspecified aspect), and the conditional (''le conditionnel'': future-in-past tense, unspecified aspect). Note that, as discussed above, in some uses the conditional can be considered a separate mood completely, while in other uses it is the future-in-past tense of the indicative. The use of the various tense forms is described in the following table:
Additionally, the indicative has five compound (two-word) tense-aspect forms, each of which is formed analogously to the
perfect in languages such as English (e.g., "have done") (though in French this form does not indicate the perfect aspect) as applied to one of the above simple tense forms. These tense forms are used to indicate events before the corresponding simple tense forms; 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 form 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 form of the simple past tense (''le passé antérieur'') for the past-of-the-past, modern non-literary French uses the pluperfect (''le plus-que-parfait''; the perfect of the imperfect), or sometimes a new form called the ''surcomposé'' (literally, "over-compound"), which re-applies the perfect to the compound past, resulting in a structure like « Je l''ai eu fait'' » (literally, "I it ''have had done''").
Unlike English or
Spanish, French does not mark for a
continuous aspect
The continuous and progressive aspects (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated and ) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective asp ...
. Thus, "I am doing it" (continuous) and "I do it" both translate to the same sentence in French: « Je le fais. » However, the distinction is often clear from context; and when not, it can be conveyed using
periphrasis
In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...
; for example, the expression ''être en train de
aire quelque chose/nowiki>'' ("to be in the middle of oing something/nowiki>") is often used to convey the sense of a continuous aspect. (For example, "I am doing it" might be expressed as « Je suis en train de le faire », "I am 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).
Similarly to English, the verb (''to go'') can be used as an auxiliary verb to create a near-future tense (''le futur proche''). Whereas English uses the continuous aspect (''to be going''), French uses the simple present tense; for example, the English sentence "I am going to do it tomorrow" would in French be « Je ''vais'' le ''faire'' demain ». As in English, this form can generally be replaced by the present or future tense: "I am doing it tomorrow", "I shall do it tomorrow", « Je le ''fais'' demain », « Je le ferai demain ».
Much like the use of (''to go'') to create a near-future tense, the verb (''to come'') can be used as an auxiliary verb to create a near-past tense (''le passé proche''). As in the near-future tense, the auxiliary verb is in the present tense. Unlike , needs the preposition ''de'' before the infinitive. Hence the English sentence "I ustdid it a minute ago" would in French be « Je ''viens de'' le ''faire'' il y a une minute ».
Tenses and aspects of the subjunctive mood
Forms
The subjunctive mood has only two simple tense-aspect forms: 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 tense-aspect forms 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 form (other than present perfect). Except in literature and very formal speeches, modern French uses the present subjunctive even where an older or more literary work would use the imperfect subjunctive.
As with the indicative, the subjunctive also has one compound tense form for each simple tense form. 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.
Uses
The subjunctive in French[Laura K. Lawless, ''Lawless French'', "French Subjunctive - Subjonctif"]
/ref> is used almost wherever it would be in English, and in many other situations as well. It is used in ''que'' ("that") clauses to indicate emotion, doubt, possibility, necessity, desire, and so forth. For example, as in English one says
*''Je préfère qu'il le fasse'', "I prefer that he it do", "I prefer that he do it"
But also, unlike in English, the subjunctive is used in, for example,
*''Je veux qu'il le fasse'' "I want that he it do", "I want him to do it"
*''Je crains qu'il (ne) parte'' "I fear that he (optional subjunctive particle) leave", "I am afraid that he will leave"
*''Je cherche un homme qui sache la vérité'' "I seek a man who knows the truth", "I am looking for a man who knows the truth"
Sometimes the subjunctive is used in the interrogative and the negative but not in the affirmative:
*''Penses-tu qu'il soit sympa ?'' (subjunctive) "Do you think that he is nice?"
*''Oui, je pense qu'il est sympa.'' (indicative) "Yes, I think that he is nice."
*''Non, je ne pense pas qu'il soit sympa.'' (subjunctive) "No, I do not think that he is nice."
In addition to situations of doubt, negatives stated with certainty take the subjunctive:
*''Il n'y a rien que nous puissions faire.'' "There is nothing that we can do."
Superlatives also can optionally be accompanied by the subjunctive in a ''que'' clause, if the speaker feels doubt:
*''C'est le meilleur livre que j'aie pu trouver.'' "That is the best book that I could find."
Finally, as in English, counterfactual conditions in the past are expressed by backshifting the apparent time reference. In English this backshifted form is called the pluperfect subjunctive, and unless it is expressed in inverted form it is identical in form to the pluperfect indicative; it is called subjunctive because of the change in implied time of action. In French, however, there is a distinction in form between the seldom used pluperfect subjunctive and the pluperfect indicative, which is used in this situation. For example,
*''Si on l'avait su (pluperfect indicative), on aurait pu (conditional perfect) l'empêcher.'' "Had we known (pluperfect subjunctive) it, we would have been able (conditional perfect) to prevent it.
Tenses and aspects of the imperative mood
The imperative only has a present tense, with a rarely used perfect: "fais-le" and "aie-le fait" both mean "do it", with the latter implying a certain deadline (somewhat like English "have it done").
Voice
Like English, French has two Grammatical voice, voices, the unmarked active voice and the marked passive voice. As in English, the passive voice is formed by using the appropriate form of "to be" (''être'') and the past participle of the main verb.
Temporal auxiliary verbs
In French, all compound tense-aspect forms are formed with an auxiliary verb (either "to be" or "to have"). Most verbs use ''avoir'' as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are all reflexive verb
In grammar, a reflexive verb is, loosely, a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject, for example, "I wash myself". More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the s ...
s and a number of verbs of motion or change of state, including some of the most frequently used intransitive verbs of the language:
* — to go
* — to arrive
* — to pass away
* 1 — to descend
* — to become
* 1 — to enter
* 1 — to climb/mount
* — to die
* — to be born
* — to leave or part
* 1 — to pass by
* — to stay
* 1 — to return
*''revenir -'' to return/ to come back
* 1 — to go out
* 1 — to fall
* — to come
These verbs are often remembered by the acronym MRS VANDER TRAMP ''or'' DR & MRS VANDER TRAMP. In the former acronym, ''devenir'' and ''revenir'' aren't mentioned because they are often thought of as variations of ''venir.''
Verbs that are derived from these by prefixation may continue to select ''être'', but this is not always the case. For example:
*(with être)
**derived from ''venir'': , , , ,
**prefix ''re-'': , 1, , 1, 1, , etc.
*(with avoir)
**derived from ''venir'': , , , ,
**transitive verbs: , , , , , etc.
(The verbs marked with "1" above combine with ''être'' in their intransitive uses, and ''avoir'' when used transitively.)
A small number of verbs, including some already mentioned above, can in fact be found with either auxiliary (, , , , , , ). There may be a subtle change of meaning depending on the auxiliary chosen, and one auxiliary is usually more literary or archaic than the other.
The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tense-aspect forms and is essential to the agreement of the past participle.
Past participle agreement
The past participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
is used in three ways in French: as an adjective, in the passive construction, and in the compound tense-aspect constructions. When it is used as an adjective, it follows all the regular adjective agreement rules. In passive constructions, it always agrees with the passive subject.
In compound tense-aspect forms, more complicated agreement rules apply, reflecting the subtle priority rules between the attribute meaning (which implies an agreement) and the compound tense construction (which by itself does not imply any agreement).
A. The auxiliary verb is ''avoir''.
B. The auxiliary is ''être'', and the verb is not reflexive. The past participle agrees with the subject:
::Elles sont arrivées. ("They (fem.) arrived.")
C. The auxiliary is ''être'' and the verb is reflexive. The agreement rules are in fact the same as those for structures with ''avoir'' in A, keeping in mind that the reflexive pronoun corresponds to either the direct object or the indirect object of the verb.
See also
* Romance verbs
Romance verbs are the most inflected part of speech in the language family. In the transition from Latin to the Romance languages, verbs went through many Phonology, phonological, Syntax, syntactic, and Semantics, semantic changes. Most of the dist ...
– shows the development of French verbs from Latin
* English verbs
Verbs constitute one of the main Part of speech, parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflection, inflected. Most combinations of Grammatical tense, tense ...
References
External links
Verb2Verbe - French/English verb conjugation with translations
Verb Conjugation Trainer by Très Bien French
French conjugation & grammar of verbs
Le Conjugueur - online conjugation for all French verbs
Bescherelle - Reference book for French Conjugation
Comment-conjuguer.fr - online conjugation for all French verbs and conjugation rules
{{Language verbs
Verbs
Indo-European verbs