3.11 Irregular verbs III — voir, croire, boire, recevoir — Epoché
What you will be able to do Conjugate voir , croire , boire and recevoir in the present, and see that they share one pattern: a stem that changes between the singular and the nous and vous forms. Give their past participles, vu , cru , bu , reçu , and build every compound tense from them. Build their imperfect, future, conditional and subjunctive from the rules of 4.14 Grammar , 4.15 Grammar and 4.18 Grammar . Recognise the verbs built on them: revoir , prévoir , apercevoir , décevoir . Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the French aloud; all of them come back below. French English Je vous rembourserai dès que je recevrai mon salaire. [1] I'll pay you back once I receive my salary. Les gens croient ce qu'ils voient. [2] People believe what they see. Quand je recevrai mon premier salaire, je ferai la fête. [3] When I get my first salary, I will hit the town. Chaque enfant a reçu un cadeau. [4] Each child was given a present. Que croyez-vous donc être en train de faire ? [5] What on earth do you think you're doing? Je n'avais pas prévu de vous le dire. [6] I hadn't planned to tell you. J'avais laissé un cadeau pour elle à la maison. [7] I had left a present for her at my house. Prerequisites : 4.15 — you need the future and conditional stems from 4.15 Grammar , and this lesson comes after the last grammar lesson, 4.26 Grammar , in the order of the course. The subjunctive of 4.18 Grammar is used too. The first phase gave you the irregular verbs you cannot speak without: être , avoir , aller , faire , and the modal verbs. The three lessons from here to 3.13 Conjugation add twelve more, four at a time, chosen because they are frequent and because each group shares a pattern. This lesson's verbs, voir , croire , boire and recevoir , share a pattern in the present: the stem of je , tu and il changes in the nous and vous forms. Voir and croire keep the singular stem for ils ; boire and recevoir add a sounded v there: ils boivent , ils reçoivent . The phase has also given you the rules for every other tense. So for each verb you need only a few key forms, its principal parts, and the rest follows. This lesson gives the present in full and the principal parts in one table, and then shows the verbs at work in the corpus. Table The present of the four verbs. Read each column down and listen for the change of stem between the third person singular and the first person plural. Person voir , to see · croire , to believe 1 sg je vois · je crois 2 sg tu vois · tu crois 3 sg il voit · il croit 1 pl nous voyons · nous croyons 2 pl vous voyez · vous croyez 3 pl ils voient · ils croient Person boire , to drink · recevoir , to receive 1 sg je bois · je reçois 2 sg tu bois · tu reçois 3 sg il boit · il reçoit 1 pl nous buvons · nous recevons 2 pl vous buvez · vous recevez 3 pl ils boivent · ils reçoivent And the principal parts, from which every other tense is built. Verb Participle · imperfect · future · subjunctive voir vu · je voyais · je verrai · que je voie , que nous voyions croire cru · je croyais · je croirai · que je croie , que nous croyions boire bu · je buvais · je boirai · que je boive , que nous buvions recevoir reçu · je recevais · je recevrai · que je reçoive , que nous recevions All the forms in these three tables were written for this lesson as paradigms. All four verbs take avoir in the compound tenses: j'ai vu , j'avais cru , j'aurai bu , j'aurais reçu . How to read the endings The singular endings are the usual silent ones. Vois , vois , voit and voient all sound the same. Bois and boit sound alike too, but in the third person plural boivent the v is heard: ils boivent ends in a consonant sound, il boit in a vowel. That consonant is how you hear the plural. The nous and vous stem is different. In voir and croire , the i of the stem becomes y before a pronounced ending: voyons , croyez . The same spelling change happens in verbs in -oyer and -uyer , such as envoyer : y before a sounded ending, i before a silent one. In boire the change is bigger, boi- becomes buv- : nous buvons , je buvais . In recevoir the stem is the infinitive's, recev- , and the singular has reçoi- . The cedilla in recevoir is there to keep the sound. Before o and u , a plain c would sound like k , so the soft s sound of recevoir needs ç : je reçois , reçu . Before e it is not needed: nous recevons . This is the rule from 1.1 Spelling , and every verb in -cevoir follows it. Two of the subjunctive forms look like the imperfect. Que nous voyions and que vous voyiez are spelled with yi ; the imperfect nous voyions is identical. In speech the y and i run together, and the forms sound like voyons and voyez with a slight glide. The future of voir is irregular; the others are not. Je verrai , with the stem verr- , is one of the irregular stems of 4.15 Grammar . Croirai and boirai follow the rule for -re verbs, dropping the e . Recevrai drops the -oi- : the verbs in -cevoir all do this. In real sentences Voir French English Que vois-tu ? [8] What do you see? Vous voyez ? [9] You see? J'ai vu ça. [10] I've seen that. Elle ne le voyait pas. [11] She didn't see him. Tu verras. [12] You will see. Rapproche-toi pour que je te voie ! [13] Come closer so I can see you! Tu vois ? and vous voyez ? are also conversational fillers, like English you see? . The last sentence has the subjunctive after pour que : que je te voie . Croire French English Je le crois. [14] I believe so. J'y crois. [15] I believe in it. Qui croyez-vous ? [16] Who do you believe? Je t'ai cru. [17] I believed you. Personne ne la croira. [18] Nobody will believe her. Espères-tu que je te croie ? [19] Do you expect me to believe you? Croire has three constructions. With a direct object it means to believe a person or a statement: je le crois , je t'ai cru . With y , or à , it means to believe in something's truth or existence: j'y crois . With en it means to believe in a person or in God: croire en Dieu . The last sentence has the subjunctive aft