Learn How to Conjugate "Oublier" (to Forget) in French

The French verb oublier means "to forget." When you want to say "I forgot" in the past tense or "he is forgetting" in the present tense, you'll need to know the verb's conjugations. This lesson is a perfect introduction to those because we'll show you how to create the most basic and commonly used forms of oublier.

The Basic Conjugations of Oublier

French verb conjugations can be a bit of a challenge because there are more words to memorize than we have in English. Where English has the -ing and -ed endings, French has a new ending for every tense as well as every subject pronoun. That means you have five extra words to learn for each tense.

The good news, however, is that oublier is a regular -er verb, meaning it follows the most common rules for French conjugations. Once you learn the endings for this verb, you can apply those to almost every other verb that ends in -er. This makes studying each new verb just a little easier.

You can use this chart to find the proper ending to attach to the verb stem of oubli-. Simply match the subject pronoun with the appropriate tense for the sentence you're using it in. For example, "I forget" is j'oublie and "we will forget" is nous oublierons.

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The Present Participle of Oublier

The present participle of oublier is oubliant. This was formed by simply adding -ant to the verb stem. It's a rule that is applied to most other -er verbs.

Oublier in the Compound Past Tense

For the past tense, you can use either the imperfect or the compound known as the passé composé. For the latter, you'll need to know the conjugates of the auxiliary verb avoir as well as the past participle oublié.

It comes together quickly: conjugate avoir into the present tense for the subject, then attach the past participle. For example, "I forgot" is j'ai oublié and "we forgot" is nous avons oublié.

More Simple Conjugations of Oublier

When you don't know whether you forgot or not, you can use the subjunctive verb mood. In a similar fashion, if you'll forget about something if something else happens, the conditional verb mood is useful. Though they don't need to be a priority, there may also be times when you'll need to use either the passé simple or imperfect subjunctive.

Brief and very direct sentences in French can be used in the imperative form. For these, skip the subject pronoun entirely and simplify it to oublie rather than tu oublie.