How to Conjugate Mentir (to Lie) in French

The French verb  mentir  means to lie. While that may be relatively easy to remember, youll also want to know how to conjugate the verb. This will allow you to use it appropriately in the present, past, or future tense and form a complete sentence.  Mentir  is not the easiest conjugation, so be sure to find out the basic forms you need to know. Basic Conjugations of  Mentir Mentir is an irregular verb, which is what makes its conjugations a little more challenging than others. It doesnt follow a regular pattern in the infinitive endings, though most French verbs ending in -mir, -tir, or -vir are conjugated in the same way. You might find it helpful to study a few at once to make memorizing each a little easier. The imperative verb mood is used most often and allows you to express  mentir  in the present, future, and imperfect past tenses. Since it is irregular, you will notice that the verb stem—men-  Ã¢â‚¬â€has some unusual endings in this chart. However, with enough practice, you can commit them to memory. Using the chart, match the subject pronoun to the appropriate tense for your sentence to find the correct conjugation. For example, I am lying is  je mens  and we lied is  nous mentions. Present Future Imperfect je mens mentirai mentais tu mens mentiras mentais il ment mentira mentait nous mentons mentirons mentions vous mentez mentirez mentiez ils mentent mentiront mentaient The Present Participle of  Mentir The present participle of mentir is produced by adding -ant to the verb stem. This gives you the word mentant. Mentir  in the Compound Past Tense In French, the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  is a compound past tense. It is constructed by combining a present tense conjugate of the  auxiliary verb  avoir  with the  past participle  menti. For example, I lied is  jai menti  and we lied is  nous avons menti. More Simple Conjugations of  Mentir Beyond those basic conjugations, you may find yourself needing a few other forms of  mentir  at times. These can be rather useful if, for instance, the action of lying is uncertain, in which case youll use the subjunctive. Or, the lying may depend on something else, so the conditional can be used. On occasion, you may also encounter the passà © simple or the imperfect subjunctive. Yet, these are rarely used so they do not have to be a priority in your studies. Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je mente mentirais mentis mentisse tu mentes mentirais mentis mentisses il mente mentirait mentit mentà ®t nous mentions mentirions mentà ®mes mentissions vous mentiez mentiriez mentà ®tes mentissiez ils mentent mentiraient mentirent mentissent With  mentir  you will find  the imperative  form  useful for short commands. When using it, skip the subject pronoun: use  mens  rather than  tu mens. Imperative (tu) mens (nous) mentons (vous) mentez