The French verb devoir means "to have to". Below are its 7 tenses as tables, with the irregular forms marked, 4 example sentences and answers to 3 common questions. Press play next to a present tense form or an example to hear it.
The present tense of devoir is je dois, tu dois, il/elle doit, nous devons, vous devez, ils/elles doivent. It is irregular: all 6 present forms break the regular -ir pattern. The tables below cover 7 tenses, from the present to the imperative. Its present participle is devant and its past participle is dû. Its compound tenses are formed with avoir.
Forms in orange break the regular -ir pattern.
| je | dois (irregular) | |
|---|---|---|
| tu | dois (irregular) | |
| il/ | doit (irregular) | |
| nous | devons (irregular) | |
| vous | devez (irregular) | |
| ils/ | doivent (irregular) |
| j' | ai dû (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | as dû (irregular) |
| il/ | a dû (irregular) |
| nous | avons dû (irregular) |
| vous | avez dû (irregular) |
| ils/ | ont dû (irregular) |
| je | devais (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | devais (irregular) |
| il/ | devait (irregular) |
| nous | devions (irregular) |
| vous | deviez (irregular) |
| ils/ | devaient (irregular) |
| je | devrai (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | devras (irregular) |
| il/ | devra (irregular) |
| nous | devrons (irregular) |
| vous | devrez (irregular) |
| ils/ | devront (irregular) |
| je | devrais (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | devrais (irregular) |
| il/ | devrait (irregular) |
| nous | devrions (irregular) |
| vous | devriez (irregular) |
| ils/ | devraient (irregular) |
| que je | doive (irregular) |
|---|---|
| que tu | doives (irregular) |
| qu'il/ | doive (irregular) |
| que nous | devions (irregular) |
| que vous | deviez (irregular) |
| qu'ils/ | doivent (irregular) |
| tu | dois (irregular) |
|---|---|
| nous | devons (irregular) |
| vous | devez (irregular) |
Devoir is irregular. Its present forms include dois, doit, devons, devez, and doivent, while the future and conditional use devr, as in devrai and devrait. The past participle is dû and the present participle is devant.
Lingo7 is an app for reading books in French with a translation under every sentence and audio, so the forms in these tables come back in context.
Devoir is irregular. Its forms include dois, devons, devrai, doive, and dû.
The future forms are devrai, devras, devra, devrons, devrez, and devront. They use the stem devr.
The present participle is devant, the past participle is dû, and the auxiliary is avoir. The compound past uses forms such as ai dû and avons dû.