How to Conjugate "Fournir" (to Furnish, to Provide) in French

"To furnish" or "to provide" in French requires the verb fournir. This is a regular verb, so French students will be happy to know that conjugating it to mean "furnished" or "providing" is pretty straightforward.

Conjugating the French Verb Fournir

In English, we use -ed and -ing endings to conjugate verbs. Things are more complicated in French because there's a new ending for each subject pronoun within each tense. This leaves you with more words to remember, but luckily fournir is a regular -IR verb and follows a relatively common conjugation pattern.

As with any conjugation, we need to recognize that the verb stem is fourn-. It is only then that we can apply the various endings to form the present, future, or imperfect past tense. For example, "I am furnishing" is "je fournis" and "we will provide" is "nous fournirons."

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The Present Participle of Fournir

Adding -ant to the verb stem of fournir gives us the present participle fournissant. It's quite useful because it can be an adjective, gerund, or noun as well as a verb.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

To form the common past tense of the passé composé, we use the past participle fourni. This is preceded by a conjugate of avoir (an auxiliary, or "helping" verb) as well as the subject pronoun. As an example, "I furnished" is "j'ai fourni" and "we provided" is "nous avons fourni."

More Simple Fournir Conjugations to Learn

Those forms of fournir should be a priority for memorization. There will also be times when you will need or encounter other simple conjugations. The subjunctive verb mood, for instance, implies a degree of uncertainty to the verb. Likewise, the conditional verb mood says that the "providing" is dependent on something.

In literature, you will likely find the passé simple. While you may not use it or the imperfect subjunctive yourself, it's a good idea to know that these are forms of fournir when reading French.

In short, assertive requests and demands, the imperative verb form is used. For this, it's perfectly acceptable to drop the subject pronoun: use "fournis" rather than "tu fournis."