The -c- in certain stems receives a cedilla before any ending which would otherwise change its pronunciation:Īvan cer: j'avan ce, nous avan çons, j'avan çais… Aper cevoir: j'aper çois, tu aper çus, nous aper cevons….Certain stems can undergo various orthographic changes (which are not strictly speaking considered to be irregularities) in order to retain the correct pronunciation: Provo quer: nous provo quons, je provo quais, en provo quant.Īdding to the stem to preserve the pronunciation īut although things are generally not removed from the stem, it is permissible to add letters when this is necessary.Navi guer: nous navi guons, je navi guais, en navi guant.Consequently, verbs ending in -guer and -quer keep the -gu- or -qu- throughout the conjugation, even where simplifying this combination to -g- or -c- would be consistent with the rules of French orthography: Vouloir: Je veux, tu veux, il veut, nous voulons, vous voulez, ils veulent.īut such irregularities apart, the principle is that nothing is removed from the stem.In the third it is often modified, sometimes even between persons in the same tense: Finir: Je finirais, vous finîtes, qu'ils finissent, finis, que nous finissions.

Parler: Je parlerais, tu parlas, qu'ils parlassent, que nous parlions, parlez.

The stem normally stays fixed in the first two conjugations: In these examples, there is no obvious stem – the verbs conjugate without a stem. Note that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the stem from the ending, especially in irregular verbs such as avoir (to have), aller (to go), dire (to say), être (to be), faire (to do, make), pouvoir (can), savoir (to know), valoir (to be worth, to cost), and vouloir (to want): These verb conjugations are most often coupled with a subject pronoun to reinforce who the subject of the verb is (i.e. The 'present indicative' being a tense and ' imperative' being a mood, but in French they are indistinguishable without context. The 'first-person plural' is the 'we' form of a verb.

In finissons, the stem fin- indicates that the verb is finir (to finish), the suffix -iss- follows it, and the inflection -ons marks the first-person plural present indicative or imperative.

The ' imperfect indicative' being a tense. 'Third person plural' meaning the subject of the verb is 'they'.

In parlaient, the stem parl- indicates that the verb is parler (to speak) and the ending -aient marks the third-person plural imperfect indicative.

In certain parts of the second conjugation there is also a suffix -iss- between the stem and the ending, which derives historically from an inchoative suffix.

These are composed of two distinct parts: the stem (or root, or radix), which indicates which verb it is, and the ending (inflection), which indicates the verb's tense (imperfect, present, future etc.) and mood and its subject's person (I, you, he/she etc.) and number, though many endings can correspond to multiple tense-mood-subject combinations. Following the tradition of Latin grammar, the set of inflected forms of a French verb is called the verb's conjugation.įrench verbs have a large number of simple (one-word) forms. In French, a verb is inflected to reflect its mood and tense, as well as to agree with its subject in person and number. For broader coverage of this topic, see French verbs.

Future stem plus imparfait endings