How to Conjugate Nourrir (to Feed) in French

If you can remember that it also means to nourish, you can  associate the French verb  nourrir  with to feed. Its also important to remember that its different from  manger, which means to eat.  The primary difference is that  nourrir  is typically used when feeding someone else, not necessarily eating food yourself. Along with memorizing the word nourrir, youll also need to know its conjugations. This lesson will introduce you to the most basic of those so you can say things like I fed and we are feeding. The Basic Conjugations of  Nourrir Proper French grammar requires verb conjugations so the verb may be used to form complete sentences. The most common conjugates are in the indicative mood, which let you express  nourrir  in the present, future, or imperfect past tense. Nourrir  is a  regular -ir verb. This means it follows a relatively common conjugation pattern found in French. If youve studied verbs like  reunir  (to reunite)  or  punir  (to punish), you can apply the same endings you learned for those to this verb. In any conjugation, its important to identify the verb stem (or radical) before anything else. For  nourrir, that is  nourr-. From there, youll add a new ending for every subject pronoun within each tense. The chart will help you learn which ending is required. For instance,  I am feeding is  je nourris  and we will feed is  nous nourrirons. Present Future Imperfect je nourris nourrirai nourrissais tu nourris nourriras nourrissais il nourrit nourrira nourrissait nous nourrissons nourrirons nourrissions vous nourrissez nourrirez nourrissiez ils nourrissent nourriront nourrissaient The Present Participle of  Nourrir As with all regular -ir verbs, the present participle of nourrir is formed with an -issant ending. This produces the word nourrissant. Nourrir  in the Compound Past Tense The compound past tense in French is the  passà © composà ©. It requires the  past participle  nourri  along with an auxiliary verb, in this case,  avoir. Begin by conjugating  avoir  into the present tense to match the subject, then attach  nourri. This results in compounds such as  jai nourri  (I fed) and  nous avons nourri  (we fed). More Simple Conjugations of  Nourrir While you can learn more complex conjugations, a few more simple forms of  nourrir  will round out this introductory lesson. Theyre useful in a few different circumstances and can really help out your French vocabulary. The subjunctive  is a verb mood that implies uncertainty to the act of feeding.  The conditional  says that the action will only happen under certain conditions. Though you may only find the literary tenses of  the passà © simple  and  the imperfect subjunctive  in written French, they are still good to know. Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je nourrisse nourrirais nourris nourrisse tu nourrisses nourrirais nourris nourrisses il nourrisse nourrirait nourrit nourrà ®t nous nourrissions nourririons nourrà ®mes nourrissions vous nourrissiez nourririez nourrà ®tes nourrissiez ils nourrissent nourriraient nourrirent nourrissent The  imperative  is the one time in French verbs when its okay to skip the subject pronoun. When using it, feel free to simplify  tu nourris  to  nourris. Imperative (tu) nourris (nous) nourrissons (vous) nourrissez