Learn How to Conjugate "Sécher" (to Dry)

Meaning "to dry," the French verb sécher will be a good addition to your vocabulary. In order to say "she dried" or "we will dry," however, you will need to study its conjugations. That is the focus of this introductory French lesson.

The Basic Conjugations of Sécher

Sécher is a stem-changing verb and that does throw a wrench into the conjugations. However, it is relatively easy to handle when you know what to look for.

Pay close attention to the indicative mood forms of sécher and you'll notice that sometimes the accented é changes to è. This happens most often in the present tense and the future gives you an option between the two.

Other than that, sécher follows the conjugation rules of any regular -er verb. You can use the same endings you know for words like tomber (to fall) and apply them here. To study these, simply find the conjugation that corresponds to both the subject pronoun and the tense of your sentence. This results in je sèche for "I am drying" and nous séchiez for "we dried."

	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	sèche	sécherai sècherai	séchais
tu	sèches	sécheras sècheras	séchais
il	sèche	séchera sèchera	séchait
nous	séchons	sécherons sècherons	séchions
vous	séchez	sécherez sècherez	séchiez
ils	sèchent	sécheront sècheront	séchaient

The Present Participle of Sécher

The present participle of sécher does not get the stem change. Instead, you will simply add -ant to the stem to form séchant.

Sécher in the Compound Past Tense

Passé composé is the French compound past tense. This is where you'll use the past participle séché along with the help of an auxiliary verb.

To form it, begin by conjugating avoir into the present tense, then add the past participle. This gives us j'ai séché for "I dried" and nous avons séché for "we dried."

More Simple Conjugations of Sécher

You will need to pay attention to the stem change in these forms of sécher as well, particularly in the subjunctive, which calls the act of drying into question. The conditional gives you the choice between the two forms because it implies that something will only be dried in the future if certain conditions are met.

There is no stem change in either the passé simple or the imperfect subjunctive, both of which are literary tenses.

	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	sèche	sécherais sècherais	séchai	séchasse
tu	sèches	sécherais sècherais	séchas	séchasses
il	sèche	sécherait sècherait	sécha	séchât
nous	séchions	sécherions sècherions	séchâmes	séchassions
vous	séchiez	sécheriez sècheriez	séchâtes	séchassiez
ils	sèchent	sécheraient sècheraient	séchèrent	séchassent

For short sentences, you may use sécher in the imperative. Beyond the stem change in the tu form, you'll also need to remember that the subject pronoun is not required here.

Imperative

(tu)       sèche​​

(nous)  séchons​​

(vous)  séchez