How to Conjugate "Attirer" (to Attract)

In French, attirer is a verb that means "to attract." It's an interesting correlation to "attire" as in clothing because we often dress in order to be attractive. That makes it easy to remember, yet, the noun for "attire" is la tenue. 

Conjugating the French Verb  Attirer

A verb conjugation is necessary to correctly use the equivalent of "attracted" or "attracting" in French. It's a bit more complex than in English because the endings change with both the subject pronoun and the tense of the sentence.

Attirer is a regular -ER verb and that makes the verb conjugation easier. This is because you can learn these forms then use the same endings for similar verbs such as attacher (to attach) or allumer (to light).

When using the chart, pair the subject pronoun -- the j', tu, nous, etc. -- with the present, future, or imperfect past tense form of the verb. For instance, "I attract" is "j'attire" and "we will attract" is "nous attirerons."

The Present Participle of Attirer

To change attirer to the present participle, change the -er to -ant. This gives you attirant. It is a verb and, when needed, can also be an adjective, gerund, or noun.

The Past Participle of Attirer

Rather than use the imperfect past tense, you can opt for the more common passé composé to express "attracted." To do this, you will need to conjugate the auxiliary verb avoir, then use the past participle of attiré.

As an example, to say "we attracted" in French, you will use "nous avons attiré." Similarly, "I attracted" is "j'ai attiré." The avons and ai are the past tense conjugates of avoir that are changed by the subject.

More Conjugations of Attirer

When you're just learning French, you can concentrate on the present, future, and passé composé of attirer. These final forms are not as essential, but it is good to know what they are and how they are used.

The subjunctive implies that the action is subjective or uncertain. The conditional form is for those times when the action is dependent on something else. It's likely that you will only come across the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive forms in formal French writing.

There may also be times when you will want to use attirer in the imperative form. This will be in short and often assertive demands or requests. When using it, you can skip the subject pronoun. For instance, instead of "tu attire," use "attire."