Learn the Conjugations of "Réduire" (to Reduce)

Rédiure is the French verb that means "to reduce." This should be pretty easy to remember because the English and French words are so similar. What happens when you want to say "reduced" or "reducing"? That's when you'll need to know réduire's conjugations and this lesson will show you the basics.

The Basic Conjugations of Réduire

The French language gives us more forms of verbs to learn then we have in English. That's because the verb changes with every subject pronoun within each tense. This means you more words to memorize.

That is only one challenge in French verb conjugations, though. Words like réduire pose another because they don't follow any of the normal rules. Réduire is an irregular verb, though all French verbs ending in -uire are conjugated this way. To make this easier, consider studying a few at the same time.

As with any conjugation, we begin with the verb stem. In this case, that is rédui-. From there, we add a variety of endings to match the tense with the subject pronoun. As an example, je réduis means "I am reducing" while nous réduisions means "we reduced.

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The Present Participle of Réduire

The present participle of réduire is also irregular in that it adds an - sant ending to the radical. This produces the word réduisant.

Réduire in the Compound Past Tense

The passé composé is a compound past tense and it's used often in French. It requires the past participle réduit along with the present tense conjugate of the auxiliary verb avoir. This forms phrases such as j'ai réduit for "I reduced" and nous avons réduit for "we reduced."

More Simple Conjugations of Réduire

There are a few more basic conjugations you may need of réduire at times and each has its own usage. For example, the subjunctive questions whether the act of reducing took place. Similarly, the conditional says the reduction will only happen under certain conditions. The passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are literary tenses and found most often in formal writing.

For direct statements, commands, and requests when you don't want to mince words, you can use the French imperative. When doing so, skip the subject pronoun, simplifying tu réduis to réduis.