How to Conjugate the French Verb Aider (to Help)

French students will be delighted to learn that  aider is an easy verb to conjugate. This is a regular verb that follows a specific pattern, so changing it to match the subject and tense is relatively easy. Aider  is the French verb for to help. This is easy to remember because aid is found inside the French word. With that said, this French lesson promises to be a quick one. Conjugating the French Verb  Aider We conjugate verbs in English as well, just not to the extent that other languages do. In French, changing the verb to indicate and support the subject pronoun—the j, tu, il, nous, etc.—as well as the tense is necessary. With a  regular -er verb  like  aider, this is easy. That is because these verbs change the endings in similar ways to one another. Once you learn how to conjugate  aider, doing so with a verb like  accepter  is performed in the same manner. Use this chart to learn the various forms of  aider. It will change according to whom you are speaking of as well as the tense. For instance, to say I help in French, you would say jaide or for we will help, you will use nous aiderons. Subject Present Future Imperfect j aide aiderai aidais tu aides aideras aidais il aide aidera aidait nous aidons aiderons aidions vous aidez aiderez aidiez ils aident aideront aidaient The Present Participle of  Aider Aider  can be transformed using the present participle for uses beyond a verb. In this form, it can also be an adjective, gerund, or noun. To do so, you must use  present participle, which is  aidant. The Common Past Tense of  Aider It is very common in French to use the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  for the past tense. This is an even easier conjugation than the imperfect. No matter your subject, you can use  passà © composà © with an  auxiliary verb  to express having helped in the past. For agir, the auxiliary verb is  avoir.  You will also need the past participle  for aider, which is  aidà ©. This means that when you want to say I helped, you can use the French jai aidà ©. To say we helped, it would simply be nous avons  aidà ©. Its important to note that the  ai and avons in these examples are conjugates of the auxiliary verb  avoir. More Conjugations for  Aider There are other conjugations which you may use at times, though those above are the most important forms of  aider. The following table will give you the subjunctive—a form of uncertainty—as well as the conditional verb forms. You will also find the  passà © simple and imperfect subjunctive forms. Both of these are used in formal writing. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j aide aiderais aidai aidasse tu aides aiderais aidas aidasses il aide aiderait aida aidt nous aidions aiderions aidmes aidassions vous aidiez aideriez aidtes aidassiez ils aident aideraient aidrent aidassent You will need to know one last conjugation for  aider  and that is the imperative form. This is used for commands or requests, which are common uses for  aider, so this is important to study.   For the imperative, there is no need to use the subject pronoun as the imperative verb implies the who. For example, instead of saying il aide le to say help him, you would simply say aide le. Its short and to the point, exactly what you need when you need help. Imperative (tu) aide (nous) aidons (vous) aidez