What is conjugation?
Conjugation refers to all the forms that a verb can take.
In these forms, conjugation makes it possible to recognize several elements:
- an indication in relation to the person (je, tu, il). This makes it possible to specify who does the action of the verb.
- an indication of the number of people in the action (nous, vous, ils). This specifies how many people do the action of the verb.
- an indication of the tense (past, present or future). This makes it possible to locate the action in time.
- an indication in relation to the mode (indicative, subjunctive, conditional). A nuance is brought here to introduce a doubt, a wish or more simply a certainty in relation to the action.
- Conjugation may also give an indication of voice (active or passive). This makes it possible to specify whether the action is made or undergone by the subject.
In short, as you can see, the conjugation brings many elements to the sentence by specifying the type of action and adding the desired nuances.
And the verb?
As for the verb, it is a word that expresses either an action made or undergone by a subject, or the existence or state of the subject, or finally the union of the subject's attribute. Example: il fait du violon.
Still in the definitions, the verb phrase is a meeting of words that expresses a single idea and plays the role of a verb: donner lieu, avoir envie, prendre garde, faire savoir...
The mode, the tense and the person determine each of the forms that a verb can take.
The different modes
In French, there are 4 modes:
- The indicative expresses actions and general truths.
- The subjunctive expresses a wish, a will or a piece of advice.
- The conditional expresses a condition.
- The imperative expresses an order.
Each of these modes is subdivided in time. A distinction is made between simple beats and compound beats. A compound tense is always constructed with an auxiliary and then the verb in the past participle. A compound tense is therefore a verbal phrase made up of several words.
Then, each tense has 6 persons marked by personal pronoun je, tu, il/elle/on, nous, vous, ils/elles.
There are also impersonal forms such as participle and infinitive. At finale, there are for one verb nearly one hundred possible forms. But do not panic, most of them are very similar.