In French, « Je le ferais si j'avais assez de temps » is "I would do it if I had enough time" in English. Many linguists recognize a fourth mood, the conditional ( le conditionnel), which is used in almost exactly the same circumstances as the conditional in English. « Faisons nos devoirs ensemble. » (" Let's do our homework together.").« Fais tes devoirs ! » (" Do your homework!").only possible with first-person plural and second-person singular and plural subject.
« Vive la République ! » ("Long live the Republic!").« Je suis heureux qu'il soit venu. » ("I am glad that he came.").« J'ai demandé qu'il parte. » ("I asked that he leave.").« Il se peut qu'il vienne demain. » ("It may be that he will come tomorrow.").used to express a third-person imperative.used to express an event to which the reaction is of most significance.used to express a doubtful, desired, or requested event.used in dependent clauses that are certainly true.used in affirmative and negative statements and questions.While the rules that determine the correct mood are quite complex, they are simplified and summarized in the following table: As discussed below, sometimes the conditional is recognized as a fourth mood. The finite moods are the indicative ( l'indicatif), the imperative ( l'impératif), and the subjunctive ( le subjonctif). There are about 370 verbs in this group, though a much smaller number are still in frequent use.Īs with English verbs, French verbs have both non-finite moods ( les modes impersonnels), also called verbals, and finite ones ( les modes personnels). This class has a few dozen subclasses, often differing substantially indeed, this class is essentially a catch-all for verbs, besides être and avoir, that do not fit into the first two classes. Nonetheless, this class is very small compared to the other two, though it does contain some of the most common verbs. 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.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. There are somewhat over 300 such verbs, all conjugated identically, with some minor exceptions. 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 maudire.The first conjugation class consists of all verbs with infinitives ending in -er, except for the irregular verb aller (actually être and aller are suppletive verbs) and (by some accounts) the irregular verbs envoyer and renvoyer 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 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.Īside from être and avoir (considered categories unto themselves), French verbs are traditionally grouped into three conjugation classes ( groupes): 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). 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. Every conjugation exhibits some degree of syncretism, where the same (homophonous, and possibly also homographic) form is used to realize distinct combinations of grammatical features. The ending depends on the mood, tense, aspect, and voice of the verb, as well as on the person and number of its subject. For example, the verb boire ("drink") has the stems boi-, boiv-, bu-, and buv. 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 stem of parler ("speak") is parl- and the stem of finir ("finish") is fin. In the first and second conjugation, the stem is easily identifiable from the infinitive, and remains essentially constant throughout the paradigm. Main articles: French conjugation and French verb morphologyįrench verbs are conjugated by isolating the stem of the verb and adding an ending.
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