French Verbs – Present Tense Subjunctive of Boire, Devoir and Vouloir

In this lesson we learn how to create the present tense of the subjunctive mood of boire, devoir and vouloir.

Vowel changes in the nous and vous forms

The next group of verbs have two irregular stems, one for the nous and vous forms; and another stem for the other forms of the verb.

Let’s see how this works for the verb boire, ‘to drink.’

The stems for the present tense subjunctive of boire are boiv– and buv–. It is formed as follows:

French	English
que je boive	that I may drink
que tu boives	that you may drink
qu’il boive	that he may drink
qu’elle boive	that she may drink
que nous buvions	that we may drink
que vous buviez	that you may drink
qu’ils boivent	that they may drink
qu’elles boivent	that they may drink

What is the present tense subjunctive mood of devoir (‘to have to’)?

The forms for devoir are doiv- and dev-.

French	English
que je doive	that I may have to
que tu doives	that you may have to
qu’il doive	that he may have to
qu’elle doive	that she may have to
que nous devions	that we may have to
que vous deviez	that you may have to
qu’ils doivent	that they may have to
qu’elles doivent	that they may have to

What is the present tense subjunctive mood of vouloir (‘to want to’)?

The stem forms for vouloir are veuill- and voul- as follows:

French	English
que je veuille	that I may want, wish
que tu veuilles	that you may want, wish
qu’il veuille	that he may want, wish
qu’elle veuille	that she may want, wish
que nous voulions	that we may want, wish
que vous vouliez	that you may want, wish
qu’ils veuillent	that they may want, wish
qu’elles veuillent	that they may want, wish

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