Inherited from Old French -eoir, from Latin -(āt)ōrium, a suffix attached to the supine stem of verbs to form neuter nouns denoting instruments or places. See also -oire f, inherited from Latin -(āt)ōria (the feminine version of this suffix), and -(at)oire m, a semi-learned borrowing from -tōrium that is found in nouns built on Latin supine stems. Cognate to English -ory and -or.
-oir m (plural -oirs)
Inherited from Latin -ēre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of second conjugation verbs. Compare Italian -ere, Romanian -ea, Romansch -air.
-oir
This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.
| infinitive | simple | -oir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | -oissant /wa.sɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | -oi /wa/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | -ois /wa/ |
-ois /wa/ |
-oit /wa/ |
-oissons /wa.sɔ̃/ |
-oissez /wa.se/ |
-oissent /was/ |
| imperfect | -oissais /wa.sɛ/ |
-oissais /wa.sɛ/ |
-oissait /wa.sɛ/ |
-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/ |
-oissiez /wa.sje/ |
-oissaient /wa.sɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | -ois /wa/ |
-ois /wa/ |
-oit /wa/ |
-oîmes /wam/ |
-oîtes /wat/ |
-oirent /waʁ/ | |
| future | -oirai /wa.ʁe/ |
-oiras /wa.ʁa/ |
-oira /wa.ʁa/ |
-oirons /wa.ʁɔ̃/ |
-oirez /wa.ʁe/ |
-oiront /wa.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | -oirais /wa.ʁɛ/ |
-oirais /wa.ʁɛ/ |
-oirait /wa.ʁɛ/ |
-oirions /wa.ʁjɔ̃/ |
-oiriez /wa.ʁje/ |
-oiraient /wa.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | -oisse /was/ |
-oisses /was/ |
-oisse /was/ |
-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/ |
-oissiez /wa.sje/ |
-oissent /was/ |
| imperfect2 | -oisse /was/ |
-oisses /was/ |
-oît /wa/ |
-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/ |
-oissiez /wa.sje/ |
-oissent /was/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | -ois /wa/ |
— | -oissons /wa.sɔ̃/ |
-oissez /wa.se/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||