Simple Essayer (to Try) French Verb Conjugations

The French verb  essayer  means to try. Its a simple word that can easily be confused with  essuyer  (to wipe), so be sure to look and listen for that A in  essayer. In order to place  essayer  into the past, present, or future tense, the verb needs to be conjugated. Just follow along in this lesson and youll be saying tried and trying in French before you know it. Conjugating the French Verb  Essayer​​ Essayer  is an  optional stem-changing verb. Typically with verbs that end in -yer, the Y has to change to an I in certain forms. The rules are a little more casual with  essayer  as youll see in the table. When there are two forms of the conjugation, you can use either. The stem of  essayer  is  essay-. To this, a variety of infinitive endings is added that conform with the subject pronoun as well as the tense of the sentence. For instance, I try is jessaie or jessaye. Similarly, there are two options for we will try: nous essaierons or nous essayerons. All this leaves you with many words to memorize. The good news is that there are many opportunities to practice it and use  essayer  as you try things throughout your day. Subject Present Future Imperfect j' essaieessaye essaieraiessayerai essayais tu essaiesessayes essaierasessayeras essayais il essaieessaye essaieraessayera essayait nous essayons essaieronsessayerons essayions vous essayez essaierezessayerez essayiez ils essaientessayent essaierontessayeront essayaient The Present Participle of  Essayer The  present participle  of essayer is  essayant. This is as simple as adding -ant  to the verb stem. Not only does it work as a verb, but it can also become an adjective, gerund, or noun when needed. The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © The  past participle  essayà ©Ã‚  is used to form the  passà © composà ©, a common past tense form of tried in French. To use this, youll also need to conjugate the  auxiliary verb  avoir. For example, I tried is jai essayà © and we tried is nous avons essayà ©. More Simple  Essayer  Conjugations to Know When the action of trying is in some way questionable, you can turn to the subjunctive verb mood. Similarly, if its dependent on something, the conditional verb mood is used. With less frequency, you will come across the passà © simple or the imperfect subjunctive. These are mostly found in formal writing  and will help considerably with reading comprehension. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j' essaieessaye essaieraisessayerais essayai essayasse tu essaiesessayes essaieraisessayerais essayas essayasses il essaieessaye essaieraitessayerait essaya essayà ¢t nous essayions essaierionsessayerions essayà ¢mes essayassions vous essayiez essaieriezessayeriez essayà ¢tes essayassiez ils essaientessayent essaieraientessayeraient essayà ¨rent essayassent To use  essayer  in commands or direct requests, turn to the imperative verb form. When using this, the subject pronoun is not required: use essaie instead of tu essaie. Imperative (tu) essaieessaye (nous) essayons (vous) essayez