How to Conjugate Irregular –ir French Verbs

Many verbs have an -ir ending, but not all of them play nice! Some verbs don’t follow the regular conjugating patterns. They are irregular, and many of them actually don’t follow much of a pattern at all!

How to conjugate short French -ir verbs

About 30 -ir verbs don’t follow the regular -ir conjugation pattern of finir. These are short verbs because they lack the -iss part of the plural endings that regular -ir verbs have. To conjugate such -ir verbs, the easiest way is to separate the singular forms (je, tu, il/elle/on) from the plural (nous, vous, ils/elles).

Here’s how to conjugate the present tense of short -ir verbs for the je, tu, and il/elle/on forms:

1. Drop the -ir ending as well as the final consonant before it.

   For example, for the verb partir (to leave), you take off -tir, so you’re left with par-.

2. Now add the ending that fits your subject: -s, -s, or -t.

   In the example, you wind up with this: je pars, tu pars, il/elle/on part.

Here’s how to conjugate the present tense of short -ir verbs for the nous, vous, and ils/elles forms:

1. Drop only the -ir of the infinitive to get the stem.

   For example, for the verb partir, you take off -ir, so you’re left with part-.

2. Now add the ending -ons, -ez, or -ent.

   You wind up with this: nous partons, vous partez, ils/elles partent.

The following tables give you an example of the short -ir conjugation, next to a regular -ir verb conjugation so you can clearly see the missing -iss in the plural . The short -ir verb is partir, and the long one grandir. Other examples of short -ir verbs include dormir (to sleep), se sentir (to feel), sortir (to go out), and servir (to serve).

French -ir verbs that behave like -er verbs

Some -ir verbs behave like -er verbs. To conjugate them, you drop the -ir ending, like you would with a regular verb like finir. Then you add, well, the regular -er verb endings: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, and -ent! Here’s the complete conjugation of one such verb, ouvrir (to open). Other verbs of this type include découvrir (to discover), offrir (to offer), and souffrir (to suffer).

The French verbs venir and tenir

Finally, you meet a special group of verbs: venir (to come), tenir (to hold), and all their siblings (called compound verbs because they are formed with a prefix + venir or tenir). Such verbs include: se souvenir (to remember), devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), appartenir (to belong), and soutenir (to support).

To conjugate these irregular -ir verbs, drop the -enir of the infinitive and replace it with -iens, -iens, -ient, -enons, -enez, or -iennent. The following tables give you the complete present tense conjugation of venir and tenir.

The je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles forms have the same stem (-ien + ending), whereas the nous and vous forms have the same stem as the infinitive (-en).