The French Present Subjunctive: How to Form It

The subjunctive sounds frightening and mostly is not. The forms are regular for the overwhelming majority of verbs, the rule is one short instruction, and there are only about eight irregulars to memorise. This page is about building the forms. What makes the subjunctive appear in the first place - il faut que, je veux que and the rest - lives on the subjunctive after necessity and will page. Learn the shapes here first, then learn what triggers them.

One fact to fix before anything else: the present subjunctive almost always turns up after que. That little word is your signal. When you see or want que introducing a clause with a new subject, the subjunctive is usually what follows. So the forms are conventionally written with que stuck on the front - que je parle, que tu sois - to drill the habit.

The regular rule: ils-form, drop -ent, add the endings

Here is the whole regular system in one move. Take the third-person plural (the ils / elles form) of the present indicative, knock off the -ent, and add the subjunctive endings:

That is it. The je, tu, il and ils forms come straight off the ils stem; nous and vous take -ions and -iez. Watch the three groups fall into line.

parler (ils parlent -> stem parl-):

finir (ils finissent -> stem finiss-):

vendre (ils vendent -> stem vend-):

Notice that for -er verbs the je, tu, il and ils subjunctive forms are written exactly like the present indicative (je parle, que je parle). They sound the same too. The subjunctive only announces itself audibly in the nous and vous forms or in irregular verbs - which is precisely why the irregulars matter so much.

The nous and vous twist: the imperfect stem

A large family of verbs has a stem that changes between the singular and the nous form in the present indicative - venir gives je viens but nous venons, prendre gives je prends but nous prenons. These two-stem verbs keep that split in the subjunctive. The je, tu, il and ils forms build on the ils stem; the nous and vous forms build on the imperfect stem (the nous-of-the-present stem), so they look identical to the imparfait.

venir (ils viennent; imperfect nous venions):

prendre (ils prennent; imperfect nous prenions):

The same pattern runs through boire (que je boive / que nous buvions), devoir (que je doive / que nous devions), voir (que je voie / que nous voyions), recevoir (que je reçoive / que nous recevions) and others. The trick: build the four "heavy" forms off ils, and let nous and vous copy the imparfait.

The irregulars you have to memorise

Eight verbs ignore the rule. These are not optional - they are the highest-frequency verbs in the language, so you will need them constantly. Learn them as solid blocks.

être and avoir are the worst offenders, irregular throughout:

aller and vouloir keep an irregular stem in the four heavy forms but revert to a regular-looking stem for nous and vous - exactly the two-stem behaviour from the section above, just with an odd singular stem:

So que j'aille but que nous allions; que je veuille but que nous voulions. Miss this and you will produce the non-word "que nous aillions", which is wrong.

faire, pouvoir and savoir are each built on a single irregular stem (fass-, puiss-, sach-) plus the standard endings, so they are mercifully consistent across all six persons:

Finally falloir, the impersonal verb behind il faut, exists only in the third person singular: the subjunctive is qu'il faille. You meet it inside longer structures such as "bien qu'il faille partir" (although one has to leave). The same goes for pleuvoir (qu'il pleuve).

A short reference list to memorise:

• être -> que je sois, que nous soyons
• avoir -> que j'aie, que nous ayons
• aller -> que j'aille, que nous allions
• faire -> que je fasse
• pouvoir -> que je puisse
• savoir -> que je sache
• vouloir -> que je veuille, que nous voulions
• falloir -> qu'il faille

Worked examples

• parler: ils parlent -> drop -ent -> parl- -> qu'il parle, que nous parlions.
• finir: ils finissent -> finiss- -> que tu finisses, que vous finissiez.
• vendre: ils vendent -> vend- -> qu'elle vende, qu'ils vendent.
• venir: heavy forms off viennent (que je vienne); nous / vous off the imperfect (que nous venions, que vous veniez).
• boire: que je boive but que nous buvions - same two-stem split.
• être: pure memory - que je sois, qu'il soit, que vous soyez.
• aller: que j'aille in the singular, que nous allions in the plural; never "que nous aillions".
• falloir: third-person only - qu'il faille.

Common mistakes English speakers make

The big one is forgetting that aller and vouloir switch stems: it is que nous allions and que nous voulions, not "que nous aillions" or "que nous veuillions". Next, treating -er verbs as somehow special - they are not; que je parle simply happens to match the indicative, so do not invent a different ending. Another is missing the imperfect stem on the two-stem verbs and writing "que nous viennions" instead of que nous venions. People also reach for être and avoir as if they were regular: que je suis and que j'ai are the indicative; the subjunctive is que je sois and que j'aie. Watch the spelling of avoir too - que j'aie (one i, silent ending), not "que j'ai". Finally, do not bother hunting for a future or conditional subjunctive: French has no such thing, so a sentence about the future still uses the present subjunctive after que.

See also

• The subjunctive after necessity and will page covers what makes the subjunctive appear - il faut que, vouloir que, il vaut mieux que and the rest.
• The French verb conjugation reference covers every common tense alongside the subjunctive mood.
• The intermediate French grammar page sets the subjunctive in the wider B1-B2 grammar picture.
• The French grammar cheatsheet covers the whole A1-B2 grammar map at a glance.