How to Conjugate "Guérir" (to Cure, to Heal, to Recover)

The action of "healing" is described in French by using the verb guérir. Literally meaning "to cure," "to heal," or "to recover," it is a useful addition to your French vocabulary. Now, you just need to understand how to conjugate it. A quick lesson will demonstrate the simplest forms.

Conjugating the French Verb Guérir

Guérir is a regular -IR verb, meaning it follows a relatively common conjugation pattern. When you learn the endings for this verb, they can be applied to many others, including grandir (to grow) and grossir (to grow fat).

As with any French verb conjugation, begin by identifying the verb stem. For guérir, this is guér-. To this, a variety of infinitive endings is added to match the subject pronoun with the present, future, or imperfect past tense. For example, "I am healing" is "je guéris" and "we will cure" is "nous guérirons."

Subject	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	guéris	guérirai	guérissais
tu	guéris	guériras	guérissais
il	guérit	guérira	guérissait
nous	guérissons	guérirons	guérissions
vous	guérissez	guérirez	guérissiez
ils	guérissent	guériront	guérissaient

The Present Participle of Guérir

Add -ant to the verb stem of guérir to create the present participle guérissant. It is a verb, though, in certain contexts, it can also be used as an adjective, gerund, or noun.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

The past participle of guérir is guéri. This is used along with a conjugate of the auxiliary verb avoir to create a common past tense in French known as the passé composé. It's rather easy to construct: "I recovered" becomes "j'ai guéri" and "we have cured" is "nous avons guéri."

More Simple Guérir Conjugations to Learn

When the action of healing, curing, or recovering is somehow questionable or uncertain, you can use the subjunctive verb mood. In a similar fashion, if the action is dependent on something else also occurring, then the conditional verb form may be used.

Those two are great for casual conversation, though the passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are literary forms. While you may not use these yourself, it's a sound idea to be able to associate them with guérir."

Subject	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	guérisse	guérirais	guéris	guérisse
tu	guérisses	guérirais	guéris	guérisses
il	guérisse	guérirait	guérit	guérît
nous	guérissions	guéririons	guérîmes	guérissions
vous	guérissiez	guéririez	guérîtes	guérissiez
ils	guérissent	guériraient	guérirent	guérissent

To express guérir in short requests and demands, the imperative verb mood is used. For this, there's no need to include the subject pronoun, so "tu guéris" can be simplified to "guéris."

	Imperative
(tu)	guéris
(nous)	guérissons
(vous)	guérissez