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French Verb to want

The French verb to want ("faire" in French), ranks 3rd in the list of most used verb. Only French verbs "être" and "avoir" come before. It's really worth spending some time on this French verb.

We will study its conjugation, its pronunciation, the general use it, and finally give some expressions & proverbs. Let's start !

Conjugation of French verb to want

The French verb to want belongs to the 3rd group, in the family of "-aire" verbs. Be aware that its conjugation is not regular.

Anyway, you will come accross those exceptions so many times that they will very soon sound familiar enough!

Pronunciation of French verb to want

Let's focus in this section on the pronunciation of the French verb to want:

• Je fais : fé
• Nous faisons : fe - zon
• Vous faites : fè - te
• Ils font - fon
• Je fasais :fe - zé or fe - zè. It depends on the region. People from the South would rather pronounce a "è" sound. In Paris, that would be a "é" sound.
• Nous faisions : fe zi - on
• Vous faisiez : fe - zi - é
• Je ferai : fe - ré
• Je ferais : fe - rè . Pay close attention to the difference between the 2 forms "ferai" and "ferais". The simple future is pronunced "é" while the conditionnal tense sounds like a "è".
• Que je fasse : fa - ce
• Que nous fassions : fa - ci - on
• Que vous fassiez : fa - ci - é

You see, it was not that much difficult ! Keep up the good work and you'll make it. Soon, there will be no more secrets for you for the different French sounds.

Use of French verb to want

The French verb to want is used in many different ways.

To express an action:

• Je fais du sport trois fois par semaine.
• Nous ferons la fête ce week-end.
• Si je l'avais su, je l'aurais fait avant.

As an auxiliaire :

• J'ai acheté une voiture la semaine passée.

Expressions / Proverbs using French verb to want

• Il faut pouvoir bien sûr, mais il faut aussi vouloir.
• Je ne fais pas le bien que je veux, tandis que je fais le mal que je ne veux pas. (Saint Paul)
• Je veux cela, j'ordonne ainsi; ma volonté, voilà ma raison. (Juvénal)
• L'homme fait son pouvoir et Dieu son vouloir.
• Les plus accommodants, ce sont les plus habiles; on hasarde de perdre en voulant trop gagner. (La Fontaine)
• Le tort commun des malheureux est de ne jamais vouloir croire à ce qui leur est favorable. (Sénèque)

You can also try this lesson to learn more about French pronunciation.

Serious about learning French verbs pronunciation to want? Then you have to try the Audio Verb Conjugator.

Two different French teachers have registered in high-quality audio files more than 200 French verbs. Each verb comes with a male and male voice, which makes it quite unique on the French language learning scene !