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# 14. Irregular verbs

**On this page**

1. [1. Principal parts](#1-principal-parts)
2. [2. The auxiliaries *être* and *avoir*](#2-the-auxiliaries-être-and-avoir)
3. [3. *aller, faire, dire*](#3-aller-faire-dire)
4. [4. The modals and their relatives](#4-the-modals-and-their-relatives)
5. [5. *venir, tenir, prendre, mettre, voir, recevoir, asseoir*](#5-venir-tenir-prendre-mettre-voir-recevoir-asseoir)
6. [6. Third-group verbs in *-ir*](#6-third-group-verbs-in--ir)
7. [7. Verbs in *-re* and *-oir*](#7-verbs-in--re-and--oir)
8. [8. Defective and impersonal verbs](#8-defective-and-impersonal-verbs)
9. [9. Regularities among the irregularities](#9-regularities-among-the-irregularities)
10. [10. In speech](#10-in-speech)
11. [11. Counts](#11-counts)
12. [12. How Mova handles it](#12-how-mova-handles-it)
13. [Sources for this chapter](#sources-for-this-chapter)

French has one productive verb class, the verbs in *-er*, and one closed but still regular one, the verbs in *-ir* with *-issant* ([13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/)). Everything else is the "third group", and the third group is not a class but a list: a few hundred verbs, grouped into a dozen families by the shape of their infinitive and stems. The list holds the commonest verbs of the language. In six French treebanks (§11) the fourteen most frequent verb lemmas, all of them irregular (*être, avoir, faire, pouvoir, aller, devoir, dire, voir, prendre, naître, mettre, connaître, savoir, devenir*), make 45.6% of all verb and auxiliary tokens. A learner, and a parser, meets them before anything else.

The chapter gives the **principal parts** that generate the forms (§1), then the paradigms: *être* and *avoir* (§2), *aller, faire, dire* (§3), the modals (§4), *venir, tenir, prendre, mettre, voir, recevoir, asseoir* (§5), the third-group verbs in *-ir* (§6), the verbs in *-re* and *-oir* by family (§7), the defective and impersonal verbs (§8), the regularities that survive (§9), speech (§10) and the counts (§11). The regular paradigms, the tenses and their uses, and the agreement of the participle are in [13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/).

The paradigms were checked against Bescherelle's *L'art de conjuguer* (`bescherelle-1848`), which gives each model verb in full and lists under it the verbs conjugated alike. Where the 1990 rectifications (`cslf-1990`) allow another spelling it is given as well; the treebanks use the traditional spelling throughout.

## 1. Principal parts

An irregular verb is described by a small set of forms from which the rest follow by rule.

| part | what it determines | example *prendre* |
| --- | --- | --- |
| infinitive | the future and conditional stem (infinitive minus the final *-e* of *-re*), except for the closed list of §9.1 | *prendr-* |
| present 3sg | the singular present stem; the singular imperative | *il prend* |
| present 1pl | the "long" stem: imperfect, present participle, plural imperative, subjunctive 1pl/2pl | *prenons* → *pren-*: *prenais, prenant* |
| present 3pl | the subjunctive singular and 3pl | *prennent* → *que je prenne* |
| passé simple 3sg | passé simple and imperfect subjunctive | *prit* → *que je prisse* |
| past participle | the compound tenses and the passive | *pris* |

The rules for the simple tenses, as far as the irregular verbs need them:

- **Imperfect**: 1pl stem + *-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient*. Only *être* (*ét-*) departs from it.
- **Present participle**: 1pl stem + *-ant*; exceptions *étant, ayant, sachant*.
- **Future and conditional**: future stem + *-ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont* / *-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient*.
- **Present subjunctive**: 3pl stem + *-e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent*; 1pl and 2pl take the 1pl stem where it differs (*que nous prenions, que vous veniez*). Six verbs have a subjunctive stem of their own: *être* (*soi-*), *avoir* (*ai-*), *faire* (*fass-*), *pouvoir* (*puiss-*), *savoir* (*sach-*), *falloir* (*faill-*); three more have one in the singular and 3pl only: *aller* (*aill-*), *vouloir* (*veuill-*), *valoir* (*vaill-*).
- **Passé simple**: four vowel types: *-a-* (the *-er* verbs only), *-i-* (*-is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent*), *-u-* (*-us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent*) and *-in-* (*venir, tenir* and their compounds: *vins, vins, vint, vînmes, vîntes, vinrent*).
- **Imperative**: 2sg, 1pl, 2pl of the present without a subject; a 2sg in *-es* drops its *-s* (*ouvre, offre*, and *va*), which comes back before *y* and *en* (*vas-y, offres-en*). Four verbs take the subjunctive stem: *sois, aie, sache, veuille*.

The tables give the six persons as *je, tu, il / nous, vous, ils*. Compound tenses take *avoir* unless *être* is named: *j'ai pris, il aura pris*; *elle est venue* ([13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/)).

## 2. The auxiliaries *être* and *avoir*

*Être* and *avoir* are the two most frequent verbs of every corpus: 16 093 and 8 532 VERB or AUX tokens in the six treebanks, together 34.1% of all verb tokens.

### 2.1 *être* "to be"

| tense | je | tu | il / elle | nous | vous | ils / elles |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| présent | suis | es | est | sommes | êtes | sont |
| imparfait | étais | étais | était | étions | étiez | étaient |
| passé simple | fus | fus | fut | fûmes | fûtes | furent |
| futur | serai | seras | sera | serons | serez | seront |
| conditionnel | serais | serais | serait | serions | seriez | seraient |
| subjonctif présent | sois | sois | soit | soyons | soyez | soient |
| subjonctif imparfait | fusse | fusses | fût | fussions | fussiez | fussent |
| impératif | — | sois | — | soyons | soyez | — |

Infinitive *être*; present participle *étant*; past participle *été*, invariable like every participle of an intransitive verb. The compound tenses take *avoir* (*j'ai été*). Colloquial French also uses *j'ai été* as a past of "go" (*j'ai été au marché*), which normative grammar condemns.

The stems come from three sources: Latin *esse* (*suis, est, sont, sois*), *stare* (the imperfect *ét-*, Old French *estoie*) and the perfect *fui* (*fus, fût*); the future *ser-* continues the Old French *serai* beside *estrai*. *Sommes* is the only modern verb form in *-mes* outside the passé simple; Brunot (`brunot-1899`) traces the ending *-ons* of every other first plural to the same Latin *sumus*, through Old French *somes*, by analogy. The *-tes* of *êtes* has the same kind of rarity: only *faites* and *dites* (§3) keep the Latin unstressed ending *-itis* (*facitis, dicitis*), which the other verbs replaced by *-ez*.

In the six treebanks the commonest forms of *être* (VERB or AUX) are *est* 8 611, *sont* 1 648, *été* 1 380, *était* 1 354, *être* 717, the passé simple *fut* 580 and *suis* 292; *furent* has 100. The form *soit* (273 tokens, 2026-11-06) is the subjunctive (167 as *être*) and also the conjunction of alternation *soit … soit* (103 tokens CCONJ).

The 1990 rectifications drop the circumflex on *i* and *u* but keep it where it marks a verb ending: the passé simple *fûmes, fûtes* and the imperfect subjunctive *qu'il fût* (`cslf-1990`, II.4.a).

### 2.2 *avoir* "to have"

| tense | je | tu | il / elle | nous | vous | ils / elles |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| présent | ai | as | a | avons | avez | ont |
| imparfait | avais | avais | avait | avions | aviez | avaient |
| passé simple | eus | eus | eut | eûmes | eûtes | eurent |
| futur | aurai | auras | aura | aurons | aurez | auront |
| conditionnel | aurais | aurais | aurait | aurions | auriez | auraient |
| subjonctif présent | aie | aies | ait | ayons | ayez | aient |
| subjonctif imparfait | eusse | eusses | eût | eussions | eussiez | eussent |
| impératif | — | aie | — | ayons | ayez | — |

Past participle *eu* /y/, a spelling kept from Old French *eü*; the passé simple *eus, eut* has the same /y/. Present participle *ayant*. The existential *il y a* is *avoir* with the clitic *y*: *il y avait, il y a eu, qu'il y ait*; *il y a dix ans* is "ten years ago". The stems are *a-/av-/ai-/ay-/au-/eu-* and *ont*.

## 3. *aller, faire, dire*

### 3.1 *aller* "to go"

| tense | je | tu | il | nous | vous | ils |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| présent | vais | vas | va | allons | allez | vont |
| imparfait | allais | allais | allait | allions | alliez | allaient |
| passé simple | allai | allas | alla | allâmes | allâtes | allèrent |
| futur | irai | iras | ira | irons | irez | iront |
| subjonctif | aille | ailles | aille | allions | alliez | aillent |
| impératif | — | va | — | allons | allez | — |

Participle *allé* (auxiliary *être*), present participle *allant*. Three stems: *vais, vas, va, vont* from Latin *vadere*, the future *ir-* from *ire*, and *all-*, whose origin Brunot (`brunot-1899`) gives as one of the etymologies still unresolved in his time (*ambulare* is the usual proposal). Outside the present, the future and the subjunctive *aller* is conjugated like an *-er* verb. Imperative *va*, but *vas-y*, and *va-t'en*. The imperative *allez !* is also a discourse marker ("come on").

*Aller* + infinitive is the near future (*il va pleuvoir*), [13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/). The compound *s'en aller* keeps the irregular present (*je m'en vais*). In the six treebanks (2026-11-06): *va* 230, *aller* 142, *vais* 77, *allez* 76, *allait* 45, *vont* 40.

### 3.2 *faire* "to do, to make"

| tense | je | tu | il | nous | vous | ils |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| présent | fais | fais | fait | faisons | faites | font |
| imparfait | faisais | faisais | faisait | faisions | faisiez | faisaient |
| passé simple | fis | fis | fit | fîmes | fîtes | firent |
| futur | ferai | feras | fera | ferons | ferez | feront |
| subjonctif | fasse | fasses | fasse | fassions | fassiez | fassent |
| impératif | — | fais | — | faisons | faites | — |

Participle *fait, faite*; present participle *faisant*. The *ai* of *faisons, faisais, faisant* is pronounced /ə/ (/fəzɔ̃/). *Défaire, refaire, satisfaire, contrefaire, surfaire* follow it (*vous défaites, vous satisfaites*). *Faire* is the causative (*faire réparer*), the support verb of many fixed expressions (*faire peur, faire attention*), the weather verb (*il fait beau*) and the stand-in verb (*qu'est-ce que tu fais ?*). It is the third verb of the treebanks (1 758 tokens): *fait* 761, *faire* 492, *font* 92, *faisait* 83, *faisant* 54, *fais* 49, *fit* 43.

### 3.3 *dire* "to say"

| tense | je | tu | il | nous | vous | ils |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| présent | dis | dis | dit | disons | dites | disent |
| imparfait | disais | disais | disait | disions | disiez | disaient |
| passé simple | dis | dis | dit | dîmes | dîtes | dirent |
| futur | dirai | diras | dira | dirons | direz | diront |
| subjonctif | dise | dises | dise | disions | disiez | disent |
| impératif | — | dis | — | disons | dites | — |

Participle *dit, dite*; present participle *disant*. Among the compounds only *redire* keeps *vous redites*; *contredire, dédire, interdire, médire, prédire* have *vous contredisez, interdisez, médisez, prédisez*, and *maudire* follows *finir* (*nous maudissons*) except for its participle *maudit*. The singular passé simple is identical to the present (*il dit* "says" and "said"), and *dit* is also the participle. *Dire* has 668 tokens: *dit* 317, *dire* 164, *dis* 45, *disons* 21, *disait* 21, *dites* 12.

## 4. The modals and their relatives

*Pouvoir, vouloir, savoir, devoir, falloir, valoir* share a pattern: a stem that alternates between a stressed form (singular and 3pl) and an unstressed one (1pl, 2pl), an *-u-* passé simple, a contracted future stem and a participle in *-u*.

|  | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **pouvoir** | peux (puis), peux, peut; pouvons, pouvez, peuvent | pouvais | pus | pourrai | puisse, puissions | pu |
| **vouloir** | veux, veux, veut; voulons, voulez, veulent | voulais | voulus | voudrai | veuille, voulions | voulu |
| **savoir** | sais, sais, sait; savons, savez, savent | savais | sus | saurai | sache, sachions | su |
| **devoir** | dois, dois, doit; devons, devez, doivent | devais | dus | devrai | doive, devions | dû (due, dus, dues) |
| **falloir** | il faut | il fallait | il fallut | il faudra | qu'il faille | fallu |
| **valoir** | vaux, vaux, vaut; valons, valez, valent | valais | valus | vaudrai | vaille, valions | valu |

**Pouvoir.** The first singular *puis* survives in inversion (*puis-je ?*, formal) and in the literary *je ne puis*. The subjunctive *puisse* is on a stem found nowhere else, in all six persons (*que nous puissions*). The participle *pu* is invariable. The conditional is the polite form (*pourriez-vous m'aider ?*). In the treebanks: *peut* 433, *peuvent* 135, *pu* 104, *pourrait* 91, *pouvait* 53, *pouvoir* 48, *peux* 41 (verb lemma 1 186; the noun *pouvoir* has its own 122 NOUN tokens). The passé simple is rare: *Elle put prolonger la vie du 15e Karmapa pendant 9 années* (fr-ud-train_07288).

**Vouloir.** Subjunctive *veuille, veuilles, veuille, voulions, vouliez, veuillent*. Imperative *veuille, veuillons, veuillez*; the polite *veuillez* + infinitive (*veuillez agréer*) is its living use, the older imperative *veux, voulez* being rare. The conditional *je voudrais* is the commonest polite request. Fixed uses (*vouloir dire, en vouloir à, vouloir bien*) are in [19. The lexicon: layers, borrowings, multiword expressions and register](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/19-lexicon-mwe-register/). Example: *le Maroc ne veut pas les juger* (fr-ud-train_00716).

**Savoir.** Subjunctive and imperative *sache, sachons, sachez*; present participle *sachant*. *Savoir* is to know a fact or how to do something, *connaître* (§7.3) to be acquainted with. It is one of the few verbs that still take *ne* alone in formal writing: *On ne sait de quel crime ils l'accusèrent au juste* (fr-ud-train_01617); *je ne saurais vous dire* has the conditional in the sense "I could not" ([27. Negation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/27-negation/)).

**Devoir.** The participle *dû* has its circumflex only in the masculine singular, which separates it from the article *du*; the 1990 rectifications keep that accent (`cslf-1990`, II.4.b). *Devoir* expresses obligation (*je dois partir*), probability (*il doit être là*), debt (*je lui dois dix euros*) and a planned future in the past (*il devait venir*). Its only compound is *redevoir*. 726 tokens: *doit* 224, *doivent* 92, *devait* 67, *dû* 62, *devrait* 60.

**Falloir** is impersonal (§8): *il faut, il fallait, il fallut, il faudra, il faudrait, qu'il faille, il a fallu*. It takes an infinitive (*il faut partir*), a subjunctive clause (*il faut que tu partes*) or a noun phrase (*Il faudra encore du temps*, fr-ud-train_00391; *Il fallut toutefois attendre la saison 1919-1920*, fr-ud-train_03955). 301 tokens. *Il ne faut pas* + infinitive is a prohibition ("one must not"); absence of need is *il n'est pas nécessaire de, ce n'est pas la peine de*.

**Valoir** is mostly third person, with the impersonal *il vaut mieux* (*Il vaut mieux réserver car ce petit coin de Naples est bien connu*, fr-ud-test_00237) and the fixed *vaille que vaille*. *Équivaloir* is conjugated like it; *prévaloir* too, except for the subjunctive *que je prévale*.

## 5. *venir, tenir, prendre, mettre, voir, recevoir, asseoir*

|  | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **venir** | viens, viens, vient; venons, venez, viennent | venais | vins, vins, vint, vînmes, vîntes, vinrent | viendrai | vienne, venions | venu (*être*) |
| **tenir** | tiens, tiens, tient; tenons, tenez, tiennent | tenais | tins, tins, tint, tînmes, tîntes, tinrent | tiendrai | tienne, tenions | tenu |
| **prendre** | prends, prends, prend; prenons, prenez, prennent | prenais | pris, pris, prit, prîmes, prîtes, prirent | prendrai | prenne, prenions | pris, prise |
| **mettre** | mets, mets, met; mettons, mettez, mettent | mettais | mis, mis, mit, mîmes, mîtes, mirent | mettrai | mette, mettions | mis, mise |
| **voir** | vois, vois, voit; voyons, voyez, voient | voyais | vis, vis, vit, vîmes, vîtes, virent | verrai | voie, voyions | vu |
| **recevoir** | reçois, reçois, reçoit; recevons, recevez, reçoivent | recevais | reçus | recevrai | reçoive, recevions | reçu |

**Venir and tenir.** The family is large and regular within itself: *devenir, revenir, parvenir, survenir, intervenir, provenir, se souvenir* take *être*; *prévenir, subvenir, contrevenir, circonvenir* take *avoir*; *convenir* takes *avoir* in "suit" and, in careful usage, *être* in "agree". The compounds of *tenir* (*retenir, maintenir, obtenir, contenir, soutenir, appartenir, détenir, entretenir, s'abstenir*) take *avoir*. *Devenir* (371 tokens) is more frequent in the treebanks than *venir* (285), and both have passé simple forms in written narrative: *Quand vint l'âge de la retraite* (fr-ud-train_13347), *il connut et devint ami de Mushanokoji Saneatsu* (fr-ud-train_00371). *Venir de* + infinitive is the recent past ([13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/)).

**Prendre** loses the *d* of the infinitive outside the singular present and the future, and doubles the *n* where the stem vowel is stressed: *prenons* /pʁənɔ̃/, *prennent* /pʁɛn/. Compounds: *apprendre, comprendre, reprendre, surprendre, entreprendre, se méprendre*. It is the ninth verb of the treebanks (529 tokens) and the fourth in the passé simple (38), after *être, avoir* and *faire*: *le M10 prit le nom d'Achilles* (fr-ud-dev_00287).

**Mettre** has one *t* in the singular present (/mɛ/) and two in the plural (/mɛt/). Compounds: *admettre, commettre, compromettre, permettre, promettre, remettre, soumettre, transmettre, omettre, démettre*. *Se mettre à* + infinitive is inchoative: *Ce haricot se mit à germer* (fr-ud-dev_01302). *Mettre* 421 tokens, *permettre* 326.

**Voir** has *voy-* /vwaj/ before a pronounced ending and a future *verr-* (/vɛʁe/, one /ʁ/). *Revoir, entrevoir* are alike; *prévoir* has the regular future *prévoirai*, and *pourvoir* the future *pourvoirai* and the passé simple *pourvus*. The passé simple *il vit* is homographic with the present of *vivre*: *Il vit surtout dans les buissons* (fr-ud-train_00199) is *vivre*. *Voilà* (from *vois là*) is tagged VERB in the treebanks (176 of its 177 tokens, under its own lemma *voilà*), and *voici* likewise (15). *Voir* has 623 tokens.

**Recevoir** writes *ç* before *o* and *u* to keep /s/ (*reçois, reçu, reçut*). The family: *apercevoir, concevoir, décevoir, percevoir*. 232 tokens; *Thomas reçut la partie nord-ouest alors que Démétrios recevait la partie sud-est* (fr-ud-train_01616) has the passé simple and the imperfect side by side.

**Asseoir** has two conjugations. Bescherelle gives the older one: *j'assieds, tu assieds, il assied, nous asseyons, vous asseyez, ils asseyent*; imperfect *asseyais*; passé simple *assis*; future *assiérai*; subjunctive *asseye*; imperative *assieds, asseyons, asseyez*; participle *assis*. The other is *j'assois, nous assoyons, ils assoient, j'assoirai, que j'assoie*. The 1990 rectifications spell the infinitive *assoir* (also *rassoir, sursoir*), since the *e* is no longer pronounced; *surseoir* keeps its future *surseoirai* (`cslf-1990`, list and note on *assoir*). The verb is rare: 13 tokens.

## 6. Third-group verbs in *-ir*

### 6.1 *partir, sortir, dormir, sentir, servir, mentir*

These verbs lose the last consonant of the stem in the singular present (*je pars, il part* /paʁ/) and keep it in the plural (*partons, partent* /paʁt/). Imperfect *partais*, passé simple *partis*, future *partirai*, subjunctive *parte*, participle *parti*.

| verb | singular | plural | participle |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| partir (*être*) | pars, pars, part | partons, partez, partent | parti |
| sortir | sors, sors, sort | sortons, sortez, sortent | sorti |
| dormir | dors, dors, dort | dormons, dormez, dorment | dormi |
| sentir | sens, sens, sent | sentons, sentez, sentent | senti |
| servir | sers, sers, sert | servons, servez, servent | servi |
| mentir | mens, mens, ment | mentons, mentez, mentent | menti |

Also *repartir, consentir, ressentir, pressentir, se repentir, desservir, endormir*. *Sortir* takes *être* when intransitive (*il est sorti*) and *avoir* when transitive (*il a sorti les poubelles*). *Ressortir* in the sense "to come under (a jurisdiction)" is conjugated like *finir* (*il ressortit*), and *asservir* follows *finir* too. In the treebanks: *partir* 296, *sortir* 181, *servir* 117, *sentir* 56, *dormir* 23.

### 6.2 *ouvrir, offrir, couvrir, souffrir, cueillir*

The present has the endings of the *-er* verbs: *j'ouvre, tu ouvres, il ouvre, nous ouvrons, vous ouvrez, ils ouvrent*; imperative *ouvre*; subjunctive *ouvre*. The rest is *-ir*: imperfect *ouvrais*, passé simple *ouvris*, future *ouvrirai*. The participle ends in *-ert*: *ouvert, offert, couvert, souffert*. *Cueillir* (and *accueillir, recueillir*) has in addition the future *cueillerai*, as if from *-er*, and the participle *cueilli*. *Assaillir* and *tressaillir* have the same present but the future *assaillirai*. In the treebanks: *ouvrir* 120, *offrir* 88, *accueillir* 61.

### 6.3 *courir, mourir, acquérir, fuir*

|  | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| courir | cours, cours, court; courons, courez, courent | courais | courus | courrai | coure | couru |
| mourir (*être*) | meurs, meurs, meurt; mourons, mourez, meurent | mourais | mourus | mourrai | meure, mourions | mort |
| acquérir | acquiers, acquiers, acquiert; acquérons, acquérez, acquièrent | acquérais | acquis | acquerrai | acquière, acquérions | acquis |
| fuir | fuis, fuis, fuit; fuyons, fuyez, fuient | fuyais | fuis | fuirai | fuie, fuyions | fui |

*Courir* and *mourir* (with *accourir, parcourir, secourir*) are the verbs whose future has a pronounced double /ʁʁ/ (*je courrai* /kuʁʁe/ against the imperfect *je courais* /kuʁɛ/). *Conquérir, requérir, s'enquérir* follow *acquérir*; *s'enfuir* follows *fuir*. *Mourir* has 200 tokens, mostly *mort* (118): *Charles mourut d'une maladie du cœur le 8 juin 1902* (fr-ud-train_10006).

### 6.4 *vêtir, bouillir, haïr*

*Vêtir*: *vêts, vêts, vêt, vêtons, vêtent*, participle *vêtu*. *Bouillir*: *je bous, il bout, nous bouillons*, participle *bouilli*. *Haïr* follows *finir* except the singular present *je hais, tu hais, il hait* /ɛ/ without the diaeresis; elsewhere the *ï* keeps two syllables (*haïssons* /a.i.sɔ̃/), and so the passé simple *nous haïmes* has no circumflex.

## 7. Verbs in *-re* and *-oir*

### 7.1 *-indre*: *craindre, peindre, joindre*

|  | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| craindre | crains, crains, craint; craignons, craignez, craignent | craignais | craignis | craindrai | craigne | craint |
| peindre | peins, peins, peint; peignons, peignez, peignent | peignais | peignis | peindrai | peigne | peint |
| joindre | joins, joins, joint; joignons, joignez, joignent | joignais | joignis | joindrai | joigne | joint |

All the verbs in *-aindre, -eindre, -oindre* are alike (*plaindre, contraindre, atteindre, éteindre, feindre, teindre, restreindre, rejoindre*). The singular has a nasal vowel and no consonant (/kʁɛ̃/); the plural stem has /ɲ/ (*craignons* /kʁɛɲɔ̃/). The imperfect and subjunctive keep the *i* after *gn*: *nous craignions*, *vous craigniez*.

### 7.2 *-oudre*: *résoudre, absoudre, dissoudre, coudre, moudre*

*Résoudre*: *résous, résous, résout, résolvons, résolvez, résolvent*; *résolvais*; *résolus*; *résoudrai*; *résolve*; participle *résolu*. *Absoudre* and *dissoudre* conjugate alike but have no passé simple in Bescherelle's table and their participle is *absous, absoute; dissous, dissoute*, which the 1990 rectifications regularise to *absout, dissout* after the feminine (`cslf-1990`). *Coudre*: *couds, cousons, cousis, coudrai, cousu*. *Moudre*: *mouds, moulons, moulus, moudrai, moulu*. *Résoudre* has 22 tokens.

### 7.3 *-aître, -oître*: *connaître, naître, paraître, croître*

|  | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| connaître | connais, connais, connaît; connaissons, connaissez, connaissent | connaissais | connus | connaîtrai | connaisse | connu |
| naître (*être*) | nais, nais, naît; naissons, naissez, naissent | naissais | naquis | naîtrai | naisse | né |
| paraître | parais, parais, paraît; paraissons, paraissez, paraissent | paraissais | parus | paraîtrai | paraisse | paru |
| croître | croîs, croîs, croît; croissons, croissez, croissent | croissais | crûs | croîtrai | croisse | crû, crue |

The traditional spelling puts a circumflex on the *i* before *t* (*il connaît, connaître, connaîtrai*) and nowhere else (*je connais, connaissons*). The 1990 rectifications drop it (*il connait, paraitre, il nait*) but keep every circumflex of *croître* that separates it from *croire* (*je croîs, il croît, crû*), not in its compounds (*accroitre*) (`cslf-1990`, II.4.b). The family: *reconnaître, apparaître, disparaître, comparaître, accroître, décroître*. *Naître* has 457 tokens because GSD is rich in biographies: *né* 325, *née* 83, *naît* 20, *naquit* 3 (*Lazare Boldi, fameux peintre à l'huile et à fresque, naquit à Pistoie en 1624, et mourut en 1703*, fr-ud-train_10322; *Bryon Anthony McCane naît en 1976*, fr-ud-train_00556). *Connaître* has 393, *paraître* 58 (*Il paraît que oui...*, fr-ud-train_00683).

### 7.4 *-uire*: *conduire* and its family

*Conduire*: *conduis, conduis, conduit; conduisons, conduisez, conduisent*; *conduisais*; *conduisis*; *conduirai*; *conduise*; participle *conduit*. The plural, imperfect, passé simple and subjunctive have an *-s-* (/kɔ̃dɥiz-/) that the singular lacks. The family is large in the learned vocabulary: *produire, traduire, réduire, introduire, séduire, déduire, construire, détruire, instruire, cuire*. *Luire* and *nuire* have the participles *lui, nui*. *Il conduit* and the participle *conduit* are homographs (*Tout ceci nous conduit au désagréable sentiment que …*, fr-ud-train_00038). *Produire* 157 tokens, *conduire* 73.

### 7.5 *vivre, suivre, écrire, lire, rire, conclure*

| verb | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| vivre | vis, vis, vit; vivons, vivez, vivent | vivais | vécus | vivrai | vive | vécu |
| suivre | suis, suis, suit; suivons, suivez, suivent | suivais | suivis | suivrai | suive | suivi |
| écrire | écris, écris, écrit; écrivons, écrivez, écrivent | écrivais | écrivis | écrirai | écrive | écrit |
| lire | lis, lis, lit; lisons, lisez, lisent | lisais | lus | lirai | lise | lu |
| rire | ris, ris, rit; rions, riez, rient | riais | ris | rirai | rie | ri |
| conclure | conclus, conclus, conclut; concluons, concluez, concluent | concluais | conclus | conclurai | conclue | conclu |

Compounds: *survivre, poursuivre, décrire, inscrire, prescrire, transcrire, élire, relire, sourire, exclure* (participle *exclu*) and *inclure* (participle *inclus, incluse*). *Nous rions, vous riez* in the present and *nous riions, vous riiez* in the imperfect differ only by one *i*. Two homographs matter: *je suis* is *être* or *suivre* (292 against 3 in the treebanks), and *il vit* is *vivre* or *voir* (§5). Treebank examples: *Chacun vivait dans son village* (fr-ud-train_04480), *Spinoza y vécut de 1663 à 1670* (fr-ud-train_08637), *Elle écrivit aussi pour Girls Aloud* (fr-ud-train_01933). *Suivre* has 200 tokens, *écrire* 192, *vivre* 154, *lire* 60.

### 7.6 *boire, croire, plaire, taire*

| verb | présent | imparfait | passé simple | futur | subjonctif | participe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| boire | bois, bois, boit; buvons, buvez, boivent | buvais | bus | boirai | boive, buvions | bu |
| croire | crois, crois, croit; croyons, croyez, croient | croyais | crus | croirai | croie, croyions | cru |
| plaire | plais, plais, plaît; plaisons, plaisez, plaisent | plaisais | plus | plairai | plaise | plu |
| taire | tais, tais, tait; taisons, taisez, taisent | taisais | tus | tairai | taise | tu |

*Boire* has three stems (*boi-, buv-, boiv-*). *Croire* has *croy-* before a pronounced ending; its participle *cru* has no circumflex, unlike *crû* of *croître*. *Plaire* writes *il plaît*, which the 1990 rectifications align with *il tait* and *il fait* as *il plait* (`cslf-1990`, II.4); *déplaire, complaire* are alike. The participle *plu* (also of *pleuvoir*) is invariable; *tu* agrees in *elles se sont tues*. *Croire* 136 tokens (*personne n'y croyait*, fr-ud-train_11852), *boire* 9.

### 7.7 *-endre, -ondre, -erdre, -ompre, -attre, -aincre*

The largest set of *-re* verbs: *vendre, rendre, attendre, entendre, descendre, tendre, répondre, perdre, mordre, tordre, rompre, battre, vaincre*. The singular present is *-s, -s* and, in the third person, the bare stem: *il vend, il répond, il perd*; *rompre* adds *-t* (*il rompt*), *battre* has *je bats, il bat* with one *t*, and *vaincre* has *il vainc*, with *qu* before a vowel (*vainquons, vainquis*). The plural keeps the stem consonant (*vendons, vendent* /vɑ̃d/). All these verbs have a participle in *-u* (*vendu, répondu, perdu, rompu, battu, vaincu*) but a passé simple in *-i-* (*vendis, répondis, perdis, rompis, battis, vainquis*): the participle does not predict the passé simple here (§9.2).

### 7.8 *envoyer, mouvoir*

*Envoyer* (and *renvoyer*) is an *-oyer* verb (*envoie, envoyons*) with one irregularity, the future *enverrai*. *Mouvoir*: *meus, meus, meut, mouvons, mouvez, meuvent*; passé simple *mus*; future *mouvrai*; subjunctive *meuve*; participle *mû*, spelled *mu* after 1990 like *su, vu, lu* (`cslf-1990`, II.4). It is rare outside the infinitive and the participle; *émouvoir* and *promouvoir* conjugate alike with participles *ému, promu*.

## 8. Defective and impersonal verbs

A **defective** verb lacks persons, tenses or the compound forms; most of them are rare or literary.

| verb | forms in use |
| --- | --- |
| **falloir** | 3sg only (§4) |
| **pleuvoir** | 3sg: *il pleut, pleuvait, plut, pleuvra, qu'il pleuve, a plu*; figurative 3pl (*les critiques pleuvent*) |
| **neiger, grêler, venter** | regular *-er* verbs, 3sg only |
| **gésir** | *je gis, il gît, nous gisons, ils gisent, gisait, gisant*; *ci-gît* |
| **choir, échoir, déchoir** | *choir* hardly beyond the infinitive (Bescherelle) and the participle *chu*; *il échoit, il échut, échu*; *déchoir* has *déchu* and takes *avoir* or *être* |
| **seoir** "to suit" | 3rd person only: *il sied, ils siéent, il seyait, il siéra*; present participle *seyant*; no compound tenses (Bescherelle); *messeoir* alike |
| **clore** | *je clos, il clôt, ils closent*, future *clorai*, participle *clos*; no imperfect or passé simple; *enclore, éclore* alike |
| **frire** | *fris, frit*, future *frirai*, participle *frit*; the missing forms are supplied by *faire frire* |
| **traire** | *trais, trayons, traient*, no passé simple, participle *trait*; *distraire, extraire, soustraire, abstraire* alike |
| **absoudre, dissoudre** | no passé simple (§7.2) |
| **braire, bruire, paître** | 3rd person: *il brait, ils braient*; *bruissait, bruissant*; *il paît, paissait* |
| **ouïr** | the infinitive and participle: *j'ai ouï dire*, the noun *ouï-dire* |
| **faillir** | *j'ai failli tomber* ("I nearly fell"), passé simple *faillis*; the present is obsolete |
| **advenir** | 3rd person: *il advient, il advint, advenu*; *advienne que pourra* |

The **impersonal** constructions take the dummy subject *il*: the weather verbs, *falloir*, *il s'agit de*, *il y a*, *il paraît que*, *il suffit de*, *il convient de*, *il importe de*, *il vaut mieux*, *il reste*, *il arrive que*, *il se peut que*. *Agir* has 178 tokens in the treebanks, at least 146 of them right after the reflexive *s'*, as in *Il s'agit du 17e but de la saison* (fr-ud-train_00031). The syntax of the impersonal subject is in [21. Clause structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/21-clause-structure/).

## 9. Regularities among the irregularities

### 9.1 The future stem

The future stem is the infinitive (without the *-e* of *-re*) except in this closed list:

| verb | stem | verb | stem |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| être | *ser-* | savoir | *saur-* |
| avoir | *aur-* | pouvoir | *pourr-* |
| aller | *ir-* | vouloir | *voudr-* |
| faire | *fer-* | valoir | *vaudr-* |
| voir, revoir | *verr-* | falloir | *faudr-* |
| envoyer | *enverr-* | venir, tenir | *viendr-, tiendr-* |
| courir | *courr-* | acquérir | *acquerr-* |
| mourir | *mourr-* | cueillir | *cueiller-* |
| devoir | *devr-* | recevoir | *recevr-* |
| pleuvoir | *pleuvr-* | asseoir | *assiér-* or *assoir-* |
| mouvoir | *mouvr-* |  |  |

The written *rr* of *verr-, pourr-, enverr-, acquerr-* is pronounced as a single /ʁ/; only in *courir* and *mourir* (and their compounds) is it a long /ʁʁ/ that separates the future from the imperfect. The *-oir* verbs lose the vowel before *r* (*devr-, recevr-, saur-*), and *vouloir, valoir, falloir, venir, tenir* insert a *d* (*voudr-, viendr-*). The conditional uses the same stem.

### 9.2 The passé simple

The passé simple is not derivable from the other principal parts, but there are tendencies. A participle in *-i, -is, -it* goes with an *-i-* passé simple (*parti → partis, pris → pris, mis → mis, dit → dis, fait → fis, conduit → conduisis, écrit → écrivis*). A participle in *-u* goes with *-u-* in the *-oir* verbs and in *lire, boire, croire, plaire, vivre, connaître, paraître, courir* (*voulu → voulus, reçu → reçus, lu → lus, vécu → vécus, couru → courus*), but with *-i-* in the *-dre* verbs, *battre, rompre, vaincre* and *voir* (*vendu → vendis, battu → battis, vu → vis*). Outside both patterns are *venir, tenir* (*-in-*), *naître* (*naquis*), *mourir* (*mourus*), *être* (*fus*) and *avoir* (*eus*). The imperfect subjunctive is the 2sg passé simple + *-se* (*que je prisse, que je vinsse*), with the circumflex in the 3sg (*qu'il prît, qu'il vînt*). In the six treebanks the imperfect subjunctive has 11 tokens (§11).

### 9.3 The subjunctive

The present subjunctive is regular on the 3pl stem except for the verbs of §1. Where the 1pl stem differs, 1pl and 2pl use it: *que nous voyions, que vous buviez, que nous allions, que nous voulions, que nous valions*. The verbs whose own stem goes through all six persons are *être* (*soyons*), *avoir* (*ayons*), *faire* (*fassions*), *pouvoir* (*puissions*) and *savoir* (*sachions*).

### 9.4 Stem alternations

- **Stressed and unstressed vowel**: *peux/pouvons, veux/voulons, meurs/mourons, tiens/tenons, reçois/recevons, bois/buvons, dois/devons, acquiers/acquérons*.
- **Consonant of the plural stem**, silent in the singular: *part/partent, vend/vendent, met/mettent, résout/résolvent, craint/craignent, écrit/écrivent, conduit/conduisent*.
- **Glide *y*** before a pronounced ending: *voyons, croyons, fuyons, envoyons*; *i* before mute *e* (*je crois, ils croient*).
- ***-ss-*** in the plural stem: *connaissons, naissons*, like the *-ir* verbs of the second group (*finissons*).

## 10. In speech

The irregular verbs keep audible distinctions that the *-er* verbs have lost. *Je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent* sound alike, but *il peut* /pø/ and *ils peuvent* /pœv/, *il prend* /pʁɑ̃/ and *ils prennent* /pʁɛn/, *il met* /mɛ/ and *ils mettent* /mɛt/, *il fait* /fɛ/ and *ils font* /fɔ̃/ do not. Spoken French has three further tendencies:

1. The frequent forms reduce: *je suis* /ʃɥi/, *je sais* /ʃɛ/, *tu as* /ta/, *il y a* /ja/ ([04. Connected speech: enchaînement, liaison, elision, the mute e and assimilation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/04-connected-speech/)). The passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are absent.
2. *Aller* + infinitive replaces the simple future in many uses, so the irregular future stems are more frequent in writing.
3. The distinct subjunctives (*que je sache, puisse, fasse, aille, sois, aie*) are where the mood is audible; for an *-er* verb the subjunctive singular and 3pl sound like the present indicative.

## 11. Counts

Six modern UD French treebanks, GSD, Sequoia, ParisStories, Rhapsodie, FQB and PUD (UD 2.18, all train, dev and test files in `UD_French-*/`), 606 575 syntactic words, counted on 2026-11-06. ALTS (sixteenth century) and ParTUT (non-commercial) are left out. A verb is a token with UPOS `VERB` or `AUX`; the lemma is the treebank's (column 3).

| fact | count |
| --- | --- |
| verb and auxiliary tokens | 72 252, in 2 452 lemmas |
| *être* / *avoir* | 16 093 / 8 532 (22.3% / 11.8%) |
| *faire, pouvoir, aller, devoir, dire, voir, prendre* | 1 758; 1 186; 766; 726; 668; 623; 529 |
| *naître, mettre, connaître, savoir, devenir* | 457; 421; 393; 389; 371 |
| the fourteen lemmas above together | 32 912 = 45.6% |
| *vouloir, permettre, falloir, partir, venir, recevoir* | 348; 326; 301; 296; 285; 232 |
| *suivre, mourir, écrire, sortir, agir, tenir, produire, vivre, croire, ouvrir* | 200; 200; 192; 181; 178; 173; 157; 154; 136; 120 |
| *offrir, conduire, lire, paraître, valoir, courir, craindre, résoudre, peindre, rire, asseoir, boire* | 88; 73; 60; 58; 46; 31; 29; 22; 17; 13; 13; 9 |
| finite verbs with mood and tense | 41 514 |
| present indicative / imperfect | 31 779 / 4 814 |
| passé simple (`Mood=Ind`, `Tense=Past`) | 1 991, of which 1 985 third person; *être* 681, *avoir* 57, *faire* 56, *prendre* 38, *devenir* 33 |
| future / conditional | 1 184 / 807 |
| present / imperfect subjunctive | 620 / 11 |
| imperative | 305 |

The passé simple is 4.8% of the finite verbs, nearly all in the third person and a third of it *être*; *fut* has 580 tokens and *furent* 100. A tool that reads written French meets the irregular passé simple forms (*fut, fit, prit, devint, naquit*) more often than the regular ones in *-a*. The imperfect subjunctive, 11 tokens, matters for generation and literary text only.

## 12. How Mova handles it

- **No French morphology.** Mova has no French conjugation tables, lexicon or lemmatiser. Its morphology module, `en/src/morph.rs`, is English: lemmatisation and inflection over the built-in English dictionary (the AGID paradigms and UD frequencies) with English suffix rules, and its paradigm has eight cells (`Slot`: base, past, past participle, present participle, third singular, plural, comparative, superlative). A French verb has some fifty simple forms and does not fit it; `en morph-eval` on a French treebank would measure nothing useful and has not been run.
- **What the tagger sees.** For French, the treebank's UPOS and FEATS are mapped to Penn tags by `en xpos-fill` (`xpos_of` in `en/src/main.rs`): `VB` for an infinitive, `VBN` for a participle, `VBD` for `Tense=Past` or `Tense=Imp`, `VBZ` for a third singular, `VBP` for the rest. The rule that would give `VBG` to a present participle requires `Tense=Pres` in FEATS, but GSD keeps the participle's tense in the MISC column (`Tense[denom]`), so all its 13 769 participles become `VBN`, *étant* and *faisant* included. The passé simple and the imperfect are both `VBD`; the future, the conditional, the subjunctive and the imperative become `VBZ` or `VBP` by person. The mood is therefore invisible to the parser, and a check that needs it (the subjunctive after *il faut que*) cannot be made.
- **Unseen forms.** The tagger learns from the training treebank; a form not seen there is tagged from its letters and context. Its accuracy on such words is 84.8% (GSD train → dev, UD 2.18, 2026-10-22). The common forms of this chapter (*est, a, fait, peut, va*) are seen; the rare ones (*puissions, vécûmes, dites, assiérai*) are mostly not.
- **Homographs.** *Suis* (*être/suivre*), *vit* (*vivre/voir*), *dit, fait, mis, pris* (present or passé simple, and participle) are left to the tagger's context; no lemma is predicted.
- **What a fix would be.** A conjugation generator in Rust from the principal parts of §1 (a few hundred third-group lemmas with their parts, plus the rules of the first two groups) would give every form with its features; reversed, it would lemmatise and tag forms the treebank lacks. The paradigms of this chapter are its specification, and the lemma and FEATS columns of the six treebanks are its check (a count of mismatches). Sagot (`sagot-2019`) shows the same design for Old French: lexemes with an inflection class, from which the Alexina framework expands about a million inflected forms; used as an external lexicon it raised a tagger's UPOS accuracy on the Old French SRCMF dev set from 93.8% to 94.8%, and the author notes that irregular verbs were the part still imperfectly described. Nothing of this exists in Mova.

## Sources for this chapter

- Bescherelle, *L'art de conjuguer* (1848 ed.), `bescherelle-1848`: the model paradigms, *asseoir*, *absoudre*, *choir*, *seoir*.
- Brunot, *Précis de grammaire historique de la langue française* (1899), `brunot-1899`: *sommes* and the ending *-ons*, *faites/dites* from *facitis/dicitis*, the unresolved etymology of *aller*.
- Conseil supérieur de la langue française, *Les rectifications de l'orthographe* (1990), `cslf-1990`: the circumflex on *i* and *u* (II.4), *assoir/sursoir*, *absout/dissout*, *mu*, *plait*.
- Sagot 2019, Développement d'un lexique morphologique et syntaxique de l'ancien français (TALN, CC BY 4.0), `sagot-2019`.
- UD 2.18 French GSD, Sequoia, ParisStories, Rhapsodie, FQB, PUD: counts of 2026-11-06; examples quoted from GSD (CC BY-SA 4.0) with `sent_id`.
- Mova: `en/src/main.rs` (`xpos_fill`, `xpos_of`), `en/src/morph.rs`; baselines in [What every language gets](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/PACKAGE/).
- [← previous 13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/13-verbs/)
- [next → 15. Adjectives and adverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/15-adjectives-adverbs/)
- [↑ back to Modern Standard French (fr) — a reference manual for Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/)