How to Conjugate "Abolir" (to Abolish)

The French verb for "to abolish" is abolir. It is one of the easiest to conjugate because it is a regular verb and follows a distinct pattern. 

Conjugating the French Abolir

In French, verbs need to be conjugated to match the tense and the subject of the sentence. We do the same in English by adding -s or -ed to verbs, it's just a little more complex in French.

However, the good news here is that abolir is a regular -ir verb. That means that it follows the conjugation pattern of similar verbs that end with -ir and once you learn one, the rest are relatively easy.

To conjugate abolir, match the subject pronoun -- the I, you, we, etc. or, in French, j', tu, nous -- with the tense. The present, future, and imperfect past tenses are listed in this chart.

For instance, to say "I abolish," you would say "j'abolis." To say "we will abolish," it is "nous abolirons."

The Present Participle of Abolir

The present participle of abolir is abolissant. The -ant ending is equivalent to the English -ing and, therefore, refers to "abolishing." When constructing sentences, you can use this as an adjective, gerund, noun, or verb.

The Passé Composé Form of Abolir

The passé composé is used often in French to express the past tense, in this case "abolished." It's very easy to conjugate, you simply need a couple of things.

First of all, the auxiliary (or "helping") verb that is used with abolir is avoir. This will need to be conjugated to fit the subject and tense. Then, ​you need the past participle of abolir and that is aboli.

With that information, you can easily say "I abolished," in French: "j'ai aboli."

More Conjugations for Abolir

Those are the basic conjugations for abolir, but there are more. You may not use all of these though it's good to be aware of them in case you do.

The subjunctive is used when the verb is uncertain and the conditional when it's dependent upon something. The passé simple and imperfect subjunctive are primarily used in formal writing.

You may also use the imperative with abolir. This verb form is used in short, direct sentences that are more of a command or request.

To use the imperative, you do not have to include the subject pronoun as it is implied in the verb. For instance, rather than "tu abolis," you can simply say "abolis."