French Grammar For Dummies
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The French verbs voir (to see) and croire (to believe) are alone in their group of irregular verbs, although the particularity of their conjugation makes them somewhat akin to regular but moody -yer verbs. Like those verbs, they have regular endings, but their stem has a little twist: they replace the -i with a -y in the nous and vous forms. Here’s how to conjugate these verbs:

  • For je, tu, il/elle, and ils/elles, drop the ending of the infinitive to get the stem (either voi- or croi-). Then add the correct choice from the following endings: -s, -s, -t and -ent.

  • For nous and vous, drop the ending of the infinitive to get the stem (either voi- or croi-) and change the -i in the stem to -y. Then add the ending: -ons for nous and -ez for vous, like this: nous voyons (we see) and nous croyons (we believe), and vous voyez (you see) and vous croyez (you believe).

The following tables present the complete conjugation for both voir and croire.

je vois nous voyons
tu vois vous voyez
il/elle/on voit ils/elles voient
je crois nous croyons
tu crois vous croyez
il/elle/on croit ils/elles croient

About This Article

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Véronique Mazet has a doctorate in French from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of two successful grammar books. She currently teaches French at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.

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