How to Conjugate Reconnaître (to Recognize) in French

When you want to say I recognized or we will recognize in French, youll use the verb  reconnaà ®tre. In order to change it into the past or future tense, however, you will need to know its conjugations. This may not be the easiest French lesson, but we will show you how to form the essential forms of  reconnaà ®re  that youll need. The Basic Conjugations of  Reconnaà ®tre In French, there are easy verb conjugations and some that are more of a challenge. Reconnaà ®tre falls into the latter category. Thats because it is an irregular verb, so it does not follow a common rule in the conjugations. However, nearly all French verbs ending in -aà ®tre are conjugated this way. If you study a few together, each can be a little easier. For  reconnaà ®tre, the verb stem (or radical) is  reconn-. To this, you will add a variety of endings that match both the subject pronoun and the tense. This chart will help you learn the basics, including the common present, future, and imperfect past tenses. As an example, I recognize is  je reconnais  and we will recognize is  nous reconnaà ®trons. Practicing these in context will help you memorize them. Present Future Imperfect je reconnais reconnatrai reconnaissais tu reconnais reconnatras reconnaissais il reconnat reconnatra reconnaissait nous reconnaissons reconnatrons reconnaissions vous reconnaissez reconnatrez reconnaissiez ils reconnaissent reconnatront reconnaissaient The Present Participle of  Reconnaà ®tre The  present participle  of  reconnaà ®tre  is  reconnaissant. It is a verb, though there are some circumstances in which you can use it as an adjective or noun as well. Reconnaà ®tre  in the Compound Past Tense The compound past tense in French is called the  passà © composà ©. It requires use of the  past participle  reconnu  and the present tense conjugate of the auxiliary verb  avoir. For example, I recognized is  jai reconnu  and we recognized is  nous avons reconnu. More Simple Conjugations of  Reconnaà ®tre When youre unsure if you recognize something, you might use  the subjunctive verb mood. On the other hand, if youll only recognize something if something else happens, you can use  the conditional. In formal literature, you will find either the passà © simple  or  the imperfect subjunctive  forms of  reconnaà ®tre. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je reconnaisse reconnatrais reconnus reconnusse tu reconnaisses reconnatrais reconnus reconnusses il reconnaisse reconnatrait reconnut reconnt nous reconnaissions reconnatrions reconnmes reconnussions vous reconnaissiez reconnatriez reconntes reconnussiez ils reconnaissent reconnatraient reconnurent reconnussent The French imperative  drops all formality and skips the subject pronoun. When using  reconnaà ®tre  in direct statements, you can simplify it from  tu  reconnais  to  reconnais. Imperative (tu) reconnais (nous) reconnaissons (vous) reconnaissez