Simple Conjugations of "Tondre" (to Mow, Sheer)

Though tondre is the French verb that's often used for "to mow," it can also be used for "to shear" or "to fleece." While that may be pretty easy to remember, you will also need to know the conjugations of tondre. This lesson will help you out and teach you to say things such as "he is mowing" or "we sheered."

The Basic Conjugations of Tondre

Tondre is a regular -re verb. While it is not the French language's most common conjugation pattern, there are other useful verbs in this category. Consider studying tondre along with words like entendre (to understand) or vendre (to sell) to make each a little easier to remember.

Once you study a few regular verbs that end in -re, you will notice the pattern. For instance, in the je present tense, an s is added to the verb stem (tond-) to produce je tonds (I am mowing). Likewise, in the nous imperfect past tense, -ions is the ending and it produces nous tondions (we mowed). Use the chart to study these basic indicative mood forms by matching the subject pronoun with the proper tense for your sentence.

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The Present Participle of Tondre

As with all regular -re and -er verbs, forming the present participle of tondre is as simple as adding -ant to the stem. This gives you the word tondant.

Tondre in the Compound Past Tense

The French compound past tense is known as the passé composé and it has two elements. The first is the present tense conjugate of the auxiliary verb avoir and the second is the past participle tondu. Putting the two together gives us phrases like j'ai tondu (I mowed) and nous avons tondu (we mowed).

More Simple Conjugations of Tondre

You might also want to have questions about the act of mowing and that means you can use tondre in the subjunctive. If, however, it is in some way dependent on something else (no rain, perhaps), then you can use the conditional.

It's most likely that you will only encounter the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive in written French. They're both literary tenses and often reserved for formal literature rather than conversations.

Should you need to be forceful in telling someone to mow, use tondre in the imperative. When doing so, skip the subject pronoun and simply tell them to "Tonds !"