French Subjunctive: Regular and Irregular Verbs

The French subjunctive is a mood that can be used to express necessity, doubt, will, and desire. It is formed by dropping the -ent ending from the third person plural of the present indicative and adding the appropriate subjunctive endings. This process is known as the "regular formation" of the subjunctive.

Irregular Verbs

While most French verbs follow this regular pattern for subjunctive conjugation, there are some exceptions. There are around 10 French verbs (plus their compounds) that have "irregular" subjunctive forms. These irregular verbs may have subjunctive forms that do not follow the standard pattern, such as different subjunctive endings or different stems for the subjunctive and indicative forms.

Some examples of irregular subjunctive verbs include:

• avoir: (il faut) que j'aie, que tu aies, qu'il ait, que nous ayons, que vous ayez, qu'ils aient
• être: (il faut) que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu'ils soient
• faire: (il faut) que je fasse, que tu fasses, qu'il fasse, que nous fassions, que vous fassiez, qu'ils fassent
• pouvoir: (il faut) que je puisse, que tu puisses, qu'il puisse, que nous puissions, que vous puissiez, qu'ils puissent
• savoir: (il faut) que je sache, que tu saches, qu'il sache, que nous sachions, que vous sachiez, qu'ils sachent

Formation

For most French verbs, the subjunctive mood is formed by dropping the -ent ending from the third person plural of the present indicative and adding the appropriate subjunctive endings. However, for irregular verbs, the subjunctive forms may not follow this standard pattern.

For example, the verb "avoir" has two irregular stems and irregular endings in the subjunctive:

|avoir|être| |--|--| |--|--|--| |… que je / j’|aie|sois| |… que tu|aies|sois| |… qu’il/elle/on|ait|soit| |… que nous|ayons|soyons| |… que vous|ayez|soyez| |… qu’ils/elles|aient|soient|

The subjunctive forms of other irregular verbs may also vary from the standard pattern. It is essential to memorize the irregular subjunctive forms of these verbs to accurately use the subjunctive mood in French.