How to Conjugate Retourner (To Return) in French

The French verb  retourner  is one of seven ways to say to return in French. Its a very useful word and easy to remember because it looks and sounds like its English equivalent. It is also based on the French  tourner, which means to turn. Yet, before you use it in grammatically correct sentences, youll need to learn its conjugations. This lesson will introduce you to the most basic of those. The Basic Conjugations of  Retourner Retourner is a regular -er verb, so it follows the same conjugation pattern as the majority of French verbs. That does make it significantly easier than most French verb conjugations, especially if youve already studied similar verbs like donner (to give), arriver (to arrive), or countless other words. Its always best to begin with the indicative mood when studying a new verb. This will allow you to use it in the present, future, and imperfect past tenses and these should cover almost any use you may have. Using the verb stem (or radical)  retourn- and the chart, you can learn which endings to add that are appropriate to both the subject pronoun and the tense of your sentence. For example, I am returning is  je retourne  and we will return is  nous retournerons. Practice these in context whenever returning something and youll find them much easier to memorize. Present Future Imperfect je retourne retournerai retournais tu retournes retourneras retournais il retourne retournera retournait nous retournons retournerons retournions vous retournez retournerez retourniez ils retournent retourneront retournaient The Present Participle of  Retourner When you add -ant  to the verbs radical, you form the  present participle  retournant. Not only is it a verb, it may also be an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances. Retournerin the Compound Past Tense A common way to express the past tense of returned is with the passà © composà ©. This is a compound, which means you need the auxiliary verb à ªtre as well as the past participle retournà ©. To form this, begin by conjugating  Ãƒ ªtre into the present tense, then attach the past participle to indicate that someone or something has already returned. For example, I returned is  je suis retournà ©Ã‚  and we returned is  nous sommes retournà ©. More Simple Conjugations While the conjugations above should be your first priority, you may need to use  retourner  in other simple forms. Each of these has special usages, from questioning the act with  the subjunctive  to saying its dependent on something else with  the conditional. The passà © simple  and  the imperfect subjunctive  are literary tenses, though theyre also good to know. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je retourne retournerais retournai retournasse tu retournes retournerais retournas retournasses il retourne retournerait retourna retournt nous retournions retournerions retournmes retournassions vous retourniez retourneriez retourntes retournassiez ils retournent retourneraient retournrent retournassent Exclamations such as Return! use  the imperative form  in French. When using these, the subject pronoun is not required, so you can simplify it to Retourne ! Imperative (tu) retourne (nous) retournons (vous) retournez