French verbs


French verbs are a part of speech in French grammar. Each verb lexeme has a collection of finite and non-finite forms in its conjugation scheme.
Finite forms depend on grammatical tense and person/number. There are eight simple tense–aspect–mood forms, categorized into the indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods, with the conditional mood sometimes viewed as an additional category. The eight simple forms can also be categorized into four tenses, or into two aspects.
The three non-finite moods are the infinitive, past participle, and present participle.
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 from active voice.

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, and remains essentially constant throughout the paradigm. For example, the stem of is parl- and the stem of 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 has the stems boi-, boiv-, bu-, and buv-.
The ending depends on the mood, tense, aspect, and voice of the verb, as well as on the person and number of its subject. Every conjugation exhibits some degree of syncretism, where the same 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. 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 , French verbs are traditionally grouped into three conjugation classes :
As with English verbs, French verbs have both non-finite moods, also called verbals, and finite ones.

Finite moods

The finite moods are the indicative, the imperative, and the subjunctive. 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:
indicative
  • used in most independent clauses
  • used in affirmative and negative statements and questions
  • used in dependent clauses that are certainly true
  • used when no other mood applies
  • « Où êtes-vous ? »
  • « Je suis ici. »
    • subjunctive
  • used in many dependent clauses
  • used to express a doubtful, desired, or requested event
  • used to express an event to which the reaction is of most significance
  • used to express a third-person imperative
  • used much more than in English
  • « Il se peut qu'il vienne demain. »
  • « J'ai demandé qu'il parte. »
  • « Je suis heureux qu'il soit venu. »
  • « Vive la République ! »
    • imperative
  • used in commands and requests
  • only possible with first-person plural and second-person singular and plural subject
  • the subject is implied
  • almost exactly as in English
  • « Fais tes devoirs ! »
  • « Faisons nos devoirs ensemble. »
    • Many linguists recognize a fourth mood, the conditional, 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/ 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", and "indicatif futur du passé / indicatif futur antérieur du passé", but they recognize also that both are conjugated the same.

    Non-finite moods

    Tenses and aspects of the indicative mood

    The indicative mood has five "simple" tense-aspect forms, conveying four tenses and two aspects . The tense-aspect forms of the indicative mood in French are called the present, the simple past, the imperfect, the future, and the conditional. 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:
    present
    • like in English, used to describe habitual, recurring, and "always" true events
    • unlike in English, used to describe ongoing current action
    • unlike in English, used to describe events that started in the past and affect the present
    • sometimes used to describe upcoming events
    • used in a protasis when the apodosis is in the future tense or imperative mood
  • « Le mardi, je joue au tennis. »
  • « En ce moment, je joue au tennis. »
  • « Il habite à Paris depuis 15 ans. »
  • « Demain, je joue au tennis avec Marc. »
  • « Si je joue au tennis avec vous mardi, jouerez-vous aux échecs avec moi mercredi ? »
    • simple past
    • used to describe past events in a perfective or aorist aspect; that is, with a sense of completion, with a definite beginning and end
    • a literary tense that is rarely used in spoken language
  • « Et la lumière fut. »
  • « Il naquit en 1930 et mourut en 1998. »
  • « Hier, il plut. »
  • « Il rangea la salle tandis qu'elle faisait la vaisselle. »
    • imperfect
    • used to describe past events or situations in an imperfective aspect; that is, ongoing, repetitive, or habitual past events or situations
    • often used in conjunction with the simple or compound past to indicate an event that was ongoing while another took place
    • used in a contrary-to-fact protasis
    • often analogous to English past continuous or to the construction "used to do"
  • « Quand j'étais jeune, j'habitais à Paris. »
  • « Il rangea la salle tandis qu'elle faisait la vaisselle. »
  • « Si je le savais, je te le dirais. »
    • simple future
  • used to describe future events
  • mostly the same as in English, except that it is a simple tense in French
  • « Je le ferai demain. »
    • conditional
  • used in an apodosis when the protasis is contrary to fact
  • used to describe a past event from the standpoint of an even-earlier event
  • mostly the same as in English, except that it is a simple tense in French
  • « Si je le savais, je te le dirais. »
  • « Ils disaient que je réussirais. »
    • Additionally, the indicative has five compound tense-aspect forms, each of which is formed analogously to the perfect in languages such as English 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 ». 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. Further, where older or more literary French would have used the perfect form of the simple past tense for the past-of-the-past, modern non-literary French uses the pluperfect, or sometimes a new form called the surcomposé, which re-applies the perfect to the compound past, resulting in a structure like « Je l'ai eu fait ».
    Unlike English or Spanish, French does not mark for a continuous aspect. Thus, "I am doing it" 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; for example, the expression être en train de is often used to convey the sense of a continuous aspect. 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.
    Similarly to English, the verb can be used as an auxiliary verb to create a near-future tense. Whereas English uses the continuous aspect, 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 create a near-future tense, the verb can be used as an auxiliary verb to create a near-past tense. 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 did 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 and an imperfect. 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. 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 and the pluperfect subjunctive 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 is used almost wherever it would be in English, and in many other situations as well. It is used in que clauses to indicate emotion, doubt, possibility, necessity, desire, and so forth. For example, as in English one says
    But also, unlike in English, the subjunctive is used in, for example,
    Sometimes the subjunctive is used in the interrogative and the negative but not in the affirmative:
    In addition to situations of doubt, negatives stated with certainty take the subjunctive:
    Superlatives also can optionally be accompanied by the subjunctive in a que clause, if the speaker feels doubt:
    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,
    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.

    Voice

    Like English, French has two 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" and the past participle of the main verb.

    Temporal auxiliary verbs

    In French, all compound tense-aspect forms are formed with an auxiliary verb. Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are all reflexive verbs and a number of verbs of motion or change of state, including some of the most frequently used intransitive verbs of the language:
    Verbs that are derived from these by prefixation may continue to select être, but this is not always the case. For example:
    *
    *
    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 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 and the compound tense construction.
    A. The auxiliary verb is avoir.
    B. The auxiliary is être, and the verb is not reflexive. The past participle agrees with the subject:
    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.