Pauline:	Penses-tu, Guillaume, qu’il soit souhaitable que les enfants lisent tous les livres qu’ils veulent ?
Guillaume:	Il est très important que les enfants lisent le plus possible, c’est indéniable !
Pauline:	Je suis d’accord avec toi quoique j’émette des doutes sur leurs capacités à trier leurs lectures.
Guillaume:	Que veux-tu dire ?

The subjunctive tense is common in the French language. However, it can be challenging for non-native French speakers to determine in which situations to use it and with which phrases and verbs.

In this chapter, we will study the form of the present subjunctive as well as its use. First we will start with the form of the verbs then we’ll explore the use of this tense.

The subjunctive tense is ALWAYS preceded with “que”. So in all the conjugations of the verbs throughout this chapter, we will have “que” before the verb in the subjunctive.

In this part, we will explore the conjugation of the verbs of the third group. As we already mentioned in other lessons, the verbs of the third group are called irregular verbs which means that they don’t follow the same rule when they conjugate. In this part we will group verbs according to their conjugation in the present subjunctive. We will notice that the ending and the root play a significant part in helping us conjugate into the present subjunctive.

In this lesson, we will study the verbs conjugating like fuir to run away, inclure to include, lire to read and mettre to put.

Verbs conjugating like fuir

There is only one verb that conjugates like “fuir”, it is “s’enfuir”. Don’t confuse “enfouir” with “s’enfuir”. Even though they sound the same they don’t have the same conjugation.

Conjugating of the verb fuir into the present subjunctive:

que je	fuie
que tu	fuies
qu’ il/elle	fuie
que nous	fuyions
que vous	fuyiez
qu’ils/elles	fuient

Example:

Je ne veux pas que tu fuies tes responsabilités. Tes enfants ont besoin de toi.
I don’t want you to avoid your responsibilities. Your children need you.

Verbs conjugating like inclure

The following verbs conjugate into the present subjunctive like inclure: conclure and exclure.

Conjugation of the verb inclure:

que j’inclue

que tu inclues

qu’il/elle/on inclue

que nous incluions

que vous incluiez

qu’ils/elles incluent

Example:

Elle veut qu’on inclue le prix de notre voyage dans la facture.
She wants us to include the price of our trip in the invoice.

Verbs conjugating like lire

The following verbs conjugate into the present subjunctive like lire: élire, relire, and réélire.

Conjugation of the verb lire into the present subjunctive:

que je lise

que tu lises

qu’il/elle/on lise

que nous lisions

que vous lisiez

qu’ils/elles lisent

Example:

J’aimerais que vous lisiez avec moi le paragraph 5 de la page 21.
I would like you to read with me paragraph 5 page 21.

Verbs conjugating like mettre

The following verbs conjugate into the present subjunctive like mettre: admettre, commettre, démettre, émettre, s’entremettre, permettre, and remettre.

Conjugation of the verb mettre in the present subjunctive:

que je mette

que tu mettes

qu’il/elle mette

que nous mettions

que vous mettiez

qu’ils/elles mettent

Example:

Il est temps que nous mettions nos divergences de côté.
It’s time we put our differences aside.