Learn How to Conjugate Tourner (to Turn) in French

If you guessed that the French verb  tourner  means to turn, you would be correct. The similarities between the English and French make it easy to remember. French students will be happy to know that this is a regular verb, so conjugating it isnt too difficult, either. The Basic Conjugations of  Tourner Among all the French verb conjugations you can study, tourner falls into the largest category. As a regular -er verb, the conjugation pattern you see here is the same for the majority of French verbs, including retourner (to return), tomber (to fall), and countless others. Consider studying a few at a time to make each just a little easier to remember. To begin, the indicative mood includes the basic forms of  tourner. Here you will find the present, future, and imperfect past tenses, which you will use frequently in French conversations. Start by recognizing the verb stem (or radical) as  tourn-. From there, use the chart to learn which ending is applied that corresponds to both the subject pronoun and the tense of your sentence. You will get results such as  je tourne  (I am turning) and  nous tournerons  (we will turn). Present Future Imperfect je tourne tournerai tournais tu tournes tourneras tournais il tourne tournera tournait nous tournons tournerons tournions vous tournez tournerez tourniez ils tournent tourneront tournaient The Present Participle of  Tourner As with all regular -er  verbs, the  present participle  is formed by adding  -ant  to the radical. This produces the word  tournant. Tourner  in the Compound Past Tense You will use the  past participle  tournà © and an auxiliary verb when forming the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  of  tourner. This is the compound past tense used often in French.   To form it, conjugate  avoir  to the present tense, then add  tournà ©. This results in things like  jai tournà ©Ã‚  (I turned) and  nous avons tournà ©Ã‚  (we turned). More Simple Conjugations of  Tourner Your use of  tourner  in French conversations will have a good foundation if you concentrate on the forms above. It will be even better if you know  the subjunctive  and  the conditional  forms. Each has their use in further defining your meaning: the subjunctive questions the act of turning and the conditional says its dependent on conditions. In written French, it is very likely that you will find  the passà © simple  and  the imperfect subjunctive. While they may not be used frequently, they are still good to know. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je tourne tournerais tournai tournasse tu tournes tournerais tournas tournasses il tourne tournerait tourna tournt nous tournions tournerions tournmes tournassions vous tourniez tourneriez tourntes tournassiez ils tournent tourneraient tournrent tournassent When you want to tell someone to Turn! or use  tourner  in similarly direct sentences,  the  imperative  is used. This is where you can skip the subject pronoun and simplify it to Tourne ! Imperative (tu)              tourne (nous)     Ã‚  tournons​​ (vous)        tournez