How to Conjugate "Ennuyer" (to Bore)

How would you say "I'm bored" in French? If you conjugate the verb ennuyer (to bore), then you can use " Je m'ennuie." It's quite simple, though there are some tricks to this verb conjugation and a quick lesson will make it all crystal clear.

Conjugations

Ennuyer is a stem-changing verb, which means that the 'Y' often changes to an 'I' to retain the proper pronunciation. You'll see it in the imperfect past tense, the nous and vous of the present tense, and the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive forms of ennuyer.

Once you learn to keep an eye on that little issue, the conjugations are quite simple. They tend to fall in line with regular -ER verbs, which makes learning these just a little easier.

To conjugate ennuyer, begin by recognizing that its stem is ennuy-. From there, simply match the subject pronoun with the appropriate tense of your sentence and you're good to go. For instance, "I'm bored" can be as simple as "j'ennuie" and "we will be bored" becomes "nous ennuierons."

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The Present Participle

Add the ending -ant to the verb stem of ennuyer and you have the present participle ennuyant. It's quite useful and can be an adjective, gerund, or noun as well as a verb.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

The passé composé is another common way to express the past tense "was bored" in French. To form it, begin with the appropriate conjugation of the auxiliary verb avoir to fit the subject pronoun. Then, add the past participle ennuyé. It comes together quickly: "I was bored" is "j'ai ennuyé" and "we were bored" is "nous avons ennuyé."

More Simple Conjugations

The subjunctive verb mood is used when the action of being bored is somehow questionable or uncertain. In a similar manner, if the action is dependent on something else, then the conditional verb mood is used.

Primarily reserved for formal writing, you might encounter the passé simple in literature. The same applies to the imperfect subjunctive. While it's not essential to memorize these, being able to recognize them will aid your reading comprehension.

The imperative verb form is used for short statements that often request or demand something. When using these, skip the subject pronoun: use "ennuie" rather than "tu ennuie."