How to Conjugate "Durer" (to Last)

Similar to the English word "endure," the French verb durer means "to last." It's an easy word to remember and add to your French vocabulary. Conjugating it into the past, present, or future tense is also quite simple.

Conjugating the French Verb "Durer"

Verb conjugations are necessary in order to express "lasted" or "lasting." In English, we use these -ed and -ing endings, though things are a bit more complicated in French. That's because there are new endings for every subject pronoun as well as every tense.

Durer is a regular -ER verb and it follows the most common verb conjugation pattern in the French language. This makes learning new verbs just a little easier because you can apply these same endings to disputer (to dispute), dépenser (to spend), and many other verbs.

To study the verb conjugations, simply pair the subject pronoun with the appropriate tense for your sentence. For instance, "I last" becomes "je dure" and "we will last" is "nous durerons."

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The Present Partciple of "Durer"

When you add -ant to the verb stem dur-, the present participle durant is formed. This is quite useful as it not only acts as a verb, but also functions as an adjective, gerund, or noun when needed.

The Passé Composé and Past Participle

The passé composé is a common form of the past tense "lasted" in French. It's formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb avoir to match the subject pronoun, then attaching the past participle duré.

As an example, "I lasted" becomes "j'ai duré" and "we lasted" is "nous avons duré."

More Simple "Durer" Conjugations

This lesson includes the simplest of verb conjugations for durer. At first, study the present, future, and past tenses above and practice using them in context. Once you have those memorized, consider adding the following forms to your vocabulary.

The subjunctive and conditional verb moods each imply some sort of uncertainty or dependency in the action. These are quite useful, particularly with a verb like durer because the "lasting" may not always be guaranteed.

In contrast, it's very likely that you will only encounter the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive in formal writing. While you may not use them yourself, you should be able to recognize them as a form of durer when reading.

The imperative verb mood is primarily used in short and often assertive statements. When using it to quickly request or demand something, the subject pronoun is not required: say "dure" rather than "tu dure."