5 Irregular Verbs In French
Claribel Lizama
Spotting commonalities and learning exceptions among these unpredictable irregular verbs can make the task of learning and conjugating them feel less like a wild goose chase. This will give you a framework for predicting their conjugations and boost your overall understanding of French irregular verbs.
Learn all about French pronouns in this comprehensive guide. Discover the different types of pronouns, such as subject pronouns, object pronouns, and stress pronouns. Master their usage and conjugation rules to enhance your French language skills. Start your journey to fluency today!
In this article, we will focus on French irregular verbs. These verbs need to be memorized because even though there are far more regular verbs than irregular ones, irregular verbs are some of the most important and common verbs in the French language.
Venir and the verbs that end with -nir have their own pattern of conjugation, and in this case, the verb undergoes a stem change.The stem vien is used with je, tu, il, elle; the stem ven is used with nous and vous; the stem vien is used with ils and elles respectively.
I recently compiled for myself a list of all conjugations of every irregular verb in the French language, for over 350 verbs (as close to all of them as I could get.) I also had to translate the meaning of each verb, of course.
There were, however, about 20 verbs which I could not find English translations for anywhere on the internet, or which were very unusual and I did not understand. Could someone please provide translations for these verbs?
The verbs envoyer and its derivative renvoyer are conjugated mostly like other verbs in -yer, except in the future and conditional. If they were regular (as they indeed were in Old French), they would look like incorrect conjugations of voir. This analogy has resulted in these tenses being identical to those of that verb:
The verbs cueillir, accueillir and recueillir are conjugated as if they were first-group verbs, except in the past historic, past participle and subjunctive imperfect, whose endings are those of second-group verbs:
These verbs (assaillir, tressaillir, saillir, dfaillir) are conjugated like the above verbs, but their normal conjugation in the future and conditional is that of second-group verbs. Significant hesitation exists and they are often conjugated like cueillir instead. This is because the final /i/ of the syllable /ji/ tends to be reduced to a schwa in pronunciation or dropped entirely in the future and conditional, rendering those forms homophonous with those of cueillir-type verbs (which have a first-group future/conditional stem).
These verbs represent the original pattern resulting from Latin verbs ending in -īre, whereas those verbs with -iss- formed from Latin verbs in -ēscere. Originally both patterns existed side by side (as in Italian), but over time most moved to the -iss- pattern leading to that pattern being considered "regular" and the short pattern "irregular".
Chauvir is conjugated similar to mentir, but in the singular indicative present forms, it does not lose the stem's last letter and keeps the regular -ir verb paradigm. This conjugation is dated in usage, and the verb has an alternate conjugation with the -iss- infix, identical to regular -ir verbs, which is more common in the modern day although it is regarded as incorrect.
These verbs have a past participle in -u. Vtir (unlike mentir) keeps the -t in the indicative present singular. As in earlier periods, literary usage will often conjugate it as a second-group verb. This hesitation goes back to the earliest period of French, though the conjugation given here now predominates. In normal usage, however, the verb and its derivatives have been completely superseded by habiller.
The conjugation of courir is a mix of rendre and mourir. This is not surprising given that its original infinitive was courre (which is still used as the future stem), and was later altered to be more like the latter verb. Courre as a verbal noun is still part of the vocabulary of doghunting: chasse courre.
These verbs display stem variation in the same places as verbs like lever (future, conditional, indicative and subjunctive present), with the addition of the past historic and subjunctive imperfect (except for mourir).
These two verbs are conjugated the same way, as are their derivatives. These verbs are the only verbs where the "perfect" endings (of the past historic and imperfect subjunctive) uses a nasal vowel instead of an oral one. Note the presence of an unusual -ss- after consonants in the imperfect subjunctive and -- before two consonants.
The use of the subjunctive forms in the imperative, and indicative present first- and second-person plural for the subjunctive, are 17th century innovations. In the imperative, significant semantic differences exist between the forms. In the subjunctive, the original forms are still in occasional literary usage. The present participle veuillant has occasionally been used, particularly in Middle French. It is not entirely clear whether the alternative subjunctive forms veuillions and veuilliez should be spelt with endings in -iez/-ions or -ez/-ons, since these forms were replaced at a time when spelling was still in significant flux. The spelling with extra is is given here for consistency with most verbs.
Traditionally, the masculine singular of mouvoir's past participle was written with a circumflex (although not in its derivatives such as mouvoir). Abandonment of this diacritical was recommended by the Acadmie Franaise in 1990, though usage remains mixed.
This impersonal verb, originally a variant form of faillir is used only in the third person singular, and thus lacks an imperative. Although it once had a present participle fallant, this form has fallen out of usage completely.
Asseoir has a complex conjugation history going all the way back to Old French, where variation in the now rare and defective seoir was known to exist. In modern usage, it has two generally accepted conjugation (dubbed the "oi" and "e" conjugations) and one variant markedly dated future/conditional conjugation (dubbed "eye" conjugation). An additional, nonstandard conjugation (using "i") used mostly in informal usage now exist, tracing back to the origins of the verb, but it is not entirely clear whether its infinitive should be asseoir or assir/assire.
The verbs dissoudre, absoudre and rsoudre all all derived from an obsolete verb soudre. The original regular past participles of dissoudre and absoudre have become adjectives, leading to their modern participles. The masculine form of these participles are anomalous, ending in -s, whereas the feminine is in -te. The 1990 spelling reform recommended masculines in -t. Further, they are commonly given as having no past historic or imperfect subjunctive. Although these two forms are very uncommon, they are in use and easily reconstructed from those of rsoudre
The conjugation of prendre and its derivatives has superficial similarities with that of rendre, but differs in several areas, most noticeably in having a monosyllabic past historic and participle, and losing the d in a number of other places.
All verbs in -atre except natre and renatre are conjugated this way. The latter two verbs have a different past participle, past historic and subjunctive imperfect. While some endings are superficially similar to those of finir, they are etymologically distinct (irregular verbs that do conjugate like finir include bruire and maudire).
Amongst the derivatives of crotre, only recrotre has a past participle with a circumflex accent. They are the only word where circumflex accents are added in revised spelling, as all the participles' forms (as opposed to only the masculine singular) would gain one to distinguish them from the forms of croire and recroire.
The conjugation of these verbs is in significant flux in the past historic. Bruire is conjugated like a second-group verb, although its original conjugation, based on fuir, is still often encountered.
Bruire was originally conjugated like fuir (see above) and spelled accordingly: bruir. It is now conjugated like a second-group verb and exceptional out of the third person, but the archaic indicative imperfect forms bruyait/bruyaient may be encountered in literary use.
Since, unlike with dire, derivatives of faire carry the irregular second person ending, there is a tendency in many speakers to avoid that form entirely when using those verbs because it is felt to be no less strange than forms in -faisez would be.
Verbs in -ore pose a dilemma similar to traire's family. Clore has fallen completely out of spoken usage, and is phasing out of literary use too, so that it practically does lack the indicative imperfect and past historic as well as the subjunctive imperfect (though exceptional uses are often encountered); the "unused" status of the first and second person plural in the present indicative leaves more room to dispute. However, its derivative clore remains in common use and, despite what grammars say, is alive and well in these tenses. The same applies to enclore. The major peculiarity of these verb is the presence of a circumflex in the third person singular of the present indicative. Some have expanded it to the future, but this is considered incorrect.
There are two types of verbs in French. The first type is called regular verbs. These verbs are regular because they follow a set pattern. These set patterns prevail in all tenses that a verb undergoes.
As such, these verbs need to be memorized because even though there are far more regular verbs than irregular ones, irregular verbs encompass some of the most important and common verbs in the French language.
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