How to Conjugate "Décevoir" (to Disappoint) in French

The French verb décevoir means "to disappoint." When you want to say "disappointed" or "disappointing," you will need to conjugate the verb. Décevoir is an irregular verb and that means the French conjugations can be tricky. However, this quick French lesson will walk you through the most common verb forms.

Conjugating the French Verb Décevoir

Verb conjugations are necessary when we want to express the past, present, or future tense of a verb. It's similar to the English -ing and -ed endings, though in French we must also change the verb according to the subject pronoun.

Décevoir is an irregular verb. While it does not follow the most common conjugation patterns, the same endings you see here apply to all French verbs ending in -cevoir.

The primary difference is that we want to retain the soft 'C' sound throughout the conjugations This is why you will see a cedilla ç before the vowels 'O' and 'U' in some of the forms of décevoir. Pay special attention as you study these conjugations and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Using the table, you can quickly find the proper conjugation. Simply pair the correct subject pronoun with the appropriate tense. For instance, "I disappoint" is "je déçois" and "we disappoint" is "nous décevrons."

Read More

How to Conjugate "Détruire" (to Destroy)

By ThoughtCo Team

The Present Participle of Décevoir

The present participle of décevoir is created by adding -ant to the verb stem. The result is décevant. This is a verb, of course, yet it can also be used as an adjective, gerund, or noun when needed.

The Passé Composé and Past Participle

The passé composé is a common way to express "disappointed." To use this past tense form, add the past participle déçu to the appropriate subject pronoun and its conjugate of avoir (an auxiliary verb).

As an example, "I disappointed" is "j'ai déçu" and "we disappointed" is "nous avons déçu."

More Simple Décevoir Conjugation to Learn

When you're just starting out in French, concentrate on the past, present, and future tense forms of décevoir. As you progress, consider learning some of the following conjugations as they may be helpful as well.

The subjunctive and conditional verb moods each express some degree of uncertainty or dependency to the action of disappointing. Those are used more frequently than the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive, which are often found in writing alone.

To express décevoir in the imperative form as a short, direct demand or request, skip the subject pronoun. The whom is implied within the verb, so you can use "déçois" rather than "tu déçois."