How to Conjugate "Dépêcher"

How would you say "hurry up" in French? One way is to use a conjugate of the verb dépêcher. For example, you can use "dépêche toi" for a single person and "dépêchons vous" for multiple people.

That is just one very simple conjugation of the French verb. There are many others that you will want to know in order to use dépêcher beyond a quick command. A short lesson will run you through the most common forms.

Conjugating the French Verb Dépêcher

Dépêcher is a regular -ER verb and that makes the conjugations a little easier to remember. This is particularly true if you have already studied similar words like demander (to ask) or décider (to decide). That's because they share the same infinitive verb endings.

Before you can add an ending to dépêcher, we must identify the verb stem: dépêch-. To this, the endings are added to match the subject pronoun with the appropriate tense. For example, "I am hurrying" is "je dépêche" while "we will hurry" is "nous dépêcherons."

The Present Participle of Dépêcher

Adding -ant to the verb stem of dépêcher gives you the present participle dépêchant. It's helpful beyond the verb usage and can also be an adjective, gerund, or noun.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

Another way to express the past tense "hurried" is with the passé composé. To construct this, attach the past participle dépêché to the appropriate conjugate of avoir, the auxiliary verb.

As an example, "I hurried" is "j'ai dépêché" and "we hurried" is "nous avons dépêché." Notice how ai and avons are conjugates of avoir and that the past participle remains unchanged.

More Simple Dépêcher Conjugations to Know

When the action of hurrying is in question or uncertain, you might use the subjunctive verb mood. In a similar fashion, the conditional form implies that the hurrying will only happen if something else occurs.

The passé simple is a common literary form of dépêcher and it's likely you won't use it yourself. The same can be said for the imperfect subjunctive, however being able to recognize these is a good idea.

The imperative forms of dépêcher are those short commands like, "Hurry up!" When using these, formality is dropped, so you can skip the subject pronoun: use "dépêchons" rather than "nous dépêchons."