Present Participle Conjugations

Conjugaisons du participe présent

French present participle
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

The vast majority of French verbs use the nous form of the present tense as the root of their present participles: just drop –ons and add –ant.

Par exemple…

    nous present participle
-er verbs donner donnons donnant
-ir verbs choisir choisissons choisissant
-re verbs perdre perdons perdant
stem-changing appeler appelons appelant
irregular verbs voir voyons voyant

There are only three exceptions:

verb present participle
avoir ayant
être étant
savoir sachant

 Some verbs have two different present participles, depending on whether they are used as a verb/gerund or a noun/adjective: learn more.

 The present participle of pronominal verbs includes a reflexive pronoun, which must agree with the grammatical person it refers to:

Par exemple…

se souvenir     s’habiller  
se souvenant remembering   s’habillant getting dressed
en me souvenant upon remembering   en t’habillant while you were getting dressed
en nous souvenant     en vous habillant  
   
Quiz: Present participles

 Related lessons

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

French present participle

Questions about French?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless French Q+A forum to get help from native French speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless French

 Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless French

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation.

Your support is entirely optional but tremendously appreciated.

Leave a Reply