Conjugations of Prévenir (to Warn) in French

When you want to warn someone about something in French, you can use the verb  prà ©venir. It also means to prevent and youll want to know the  verbs conjugations  so you can use it properly in conversation. This lesson will introduce you to those so you can say things such as I warned or we prevented. The Basic Conjugations of  Prà ©venir Prà ©venir is an irregular verb and that means its a little more challenging than some other French verbs. While you cannot rely on common rules when studying these conjugations, all verbs ending in -venir  and  -tenir are conjugated this way. It would be a good idea to take on a few at a time to make each a little easier to memorize. The indicative mood is the best place to begin with any conjugation. This is where you will find the basic present, future, and imperfect past tenses which you will use most often in conversation. Using the chart, you can match the subject pronoun with the appropriate tense for your sentence. This will show you which endings are added to the verb stem of  prà ©v-. For example,  je prà ©viens  means I am warning while  nous prà ©venions  means we warned. Present Future Imperfect je prviens prviendrai prvenais tu prviens prviendras prvenais il prvient prviendra prvenait nous prvenons prviendrons prvenions vous prvenez prviendrez prveniez ils prviennent prviendront prvenaient Present Participle The  present participle  of  prà ©venir  is  prà ©venant. It is used as a verb, of course, though there are also times when you may use it as a noun or adjective. Compound Past Tense In French, the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  is a common form of the past tense. It is a compound and requires an auxiliary verb as well as the  past participle  prà ©venu. To form it, conjugate  avoir  to match the subject in the present tense, then add  prà ©venu. This results in phrases such as  jai prà ©venu  (I warned) and  nous avons prà ©venu  (we warned). More Simple Conjugations A few more simple conjugations may be needed in some of your French conversations as well. Among those are the  subjunctive  and the conditional. While the former draws uncertainty to the verbs action, the latter implies that its dependent on certain conditions. In formal French literature, you will likely encounter the  passà © simple  and the  imperfect subjunctive. While they are used less frequently than other conjugations, they are still good to know. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je prvienne prviendrais prvins prvinsse tu prviennes prviendrais prvins prvinsses il prvienne prviendrait prvint prvnt nous prvenions prviendrions prvnmes prvinssions vous prveniez prviendriez prvntes prvinssiez ils prviennent prviendraient prvinrent prvinssent The  French imperative  is used for short and direct statements and questions, so it can be quite useful with a verb like  prà ©venir. When using it, skip the subject pronoun and simplify  tu prà ©viens  to  prà ©viens. Imperative (tu) prviens (nous) prvenons (vous) prvenez