Subjunctive French: how to form it, use it and skip it

Subjunctive French is a verb mood that follows que when something is wanted, felt, doubted or needed, not stated as plain fact [1][2]. This page covers the present subjunctive: how to form it, the irregular verbs, the common triggers and the cases where you skip it. For where it sits among the other forms, see French tenses. For how any verb is built, read How to conjugate French verbs.

Is the subjunctive a mood or a tense in French?

It is a mood, and it has tenses of its own. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) describes the subjunctive as a verb mood that expresses doubt, uncertainty, wish, order, necessity, will, fear, regret and supposition: what is imagined but not sure to happen [2]. It has four tenses: the present and the imperfect, and the past and the pluperfect [2].

The imperfect and the pluperfect have almost left use, even in literary French [2]. This page covers the present. The past subjunctive is the subjunctive of avoir or être plus the past participle, as in que tu aies conclu [1].

The subjunctive does not place the action in time by itself. The context does: je doute qu’il soit parti à l’heure actuelle is about now, and je doute qu’il soit parti hier is about yesterday [2]. That is why the present subjunctive covers future events too.

How do you form the French subjunctive?

Take a verb, put que in front and use the same six endings every time. The OQLF says all verbs, regular or irregular, take -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez and -ent in the present subjunctive, except avoir and être [1]. Regular -ir verbs add -iss- between the stem and the ending, as in qu’on rétablisse [1].

The OQLF adds that the i of the nous and vous endings stays even when the stem ends in i or y, as in que nous payions [1].

The endings are from the OQLF rule [1]; the three verbs are our examples. The sound buttons play the infinitives. For the present tense these verbs come from, see French tenses.

What is the subjunctive of être in French?

The subjunctive of être is que je sois, que tu sois, qu’il soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu’ils soient [1]. Être and avoir are the two verbs that break the six-ending rule: they have a t in the third person singular and no i in the first and second person plural [1].

The table copies the OQLF’s own [1]. For the other tenses of these two verbs, see Être conjugation and Avoir conjugation.

What is the subjunctive of aller in French?

The subjunctive of aller starts from que j’aille [1]. Add the regular endings and you get que tu ailles, qu’il aille and qu’ils aillent. For aller’s other tenses, read Aller conjugation.

Which irregular verbs change stem in the subjunctive?

The OQLF lists sixteen verbs whose subjunctive stem differs from the infinitive, and advises a conjugation dictionary when in doubt [1]. These are the ones you meet first, with the OQLF’s first form:

The same list also holds acquérir, boire, craindre, devoir, mourir, recevoir, résoudre and valoir [1]. The OQLF gives falloir as qu’il faille, the third person singular [1].

What are the French subjunctive triggers?

A trigger is the word before que that calls for the subjunctive. The OQLF says the subjunctive appears in a subordinate clause after verbs of doubt, uncertainty, fear, supposition, regret, wish and necessity [2], and groups them: opinion and judgment, will and wish, and feelings [4]. Conjunctions with que add a second group [3].

The OQLF table also lists jusqu’à ce que, pourvu que, sans que, à moins que and en attendant que as subjunctive conjunctions [3]. You can hear the words behind several triggers: vouloir, falloir, regretter, craindre, exiger, and the conjunction afin que. For the verbs behind je veux que and je peux, see Vouloir, pouvoir, devoir.

When do you not use the subjunctive in French?

Skip it when the clause states a fact or a belief, and when there is no second subject. Three cases come up most.

• Après que takes the indicative. The OQLF table lists après que with the indicative, while avant que takes the subjunctive [3].
• Penser que or croire que in the affirmative take the indicative [6]. Je pense qu’il est là states a belief, not a doubt. In the negative, penser moves to the subjunctive: the OQLF gives je ne pense pas qu’il soit capable d’une telle abnégation [2].
• Same subject, use the infinitive. The subjunctive needs two different subjects [5]: je veux partir, but je veux qu’il parte (our examples).

Bien que sits in between: the OQLF says it is generally followed by the subjunctive, and that the indicative is sometimes used to stress reality but is criticized or not accepted by several reference works [3]. The safe choice is the subjunctive.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the i in nous and vous. The endings are -ions and -iez, even after i or y: que nous payions [1].
• Writing the present-tense spelling because it sounds right. Qu’il voie and il voit sound alike [1].
• Putting the subjunctive after après que without checking. The OQLF table gives the indicative [3].
• Relying on a grammar page from a blog, including this one. The official pages change. Compare each page’s date with the date at the top of this one.

For vocabulary to practise on, see the 100 most common French verbs.

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