French word of the week: voir

In this week’s edition of our French blog, we’re studying the irregular -ir verb voir. Take a listen to the audio clip to hear the pronunciation of the word before we begin:

Firstly, we need to know what this verb means. While you’ll soon see in our examples that there are many different ways to use and translate voir, the main meaning is to see.

When we’re looking at the grammar around any French verb, its most simplified form is the infinitive, which in this case is voir. Unfortunately, when it comes to conjugating irregular verbs like this, there aren’t many patterns you can learn. However, if you want to see all the different conjugated forms, you can check out the verb table of voir to learn these inside out.

Now we can move on to looking at how you might encounter voir (and its irregular forms) in everyday French:

Nous n’avons pas vu les cochons à la ferme. We didn’t see the pigs at the farm.

« Est-ce que tu penses qu’il va rater le train ? » « On verra ! / C’est à voir ! » “Do you think he’s going to miss the train?” “We’ll see!”

Je vois à ce qu’elle veut dire, mais je n’y suis pas d’accord. I see what she means, but I don’t agree with it.

C’est ridicule que vous n’ayez pas vu l’appart avant de signer le contrat de location. It’s ridiculous that you didn’t see the apartment before signing the rental contract.

Fais voir. / Faites voir. Let’s see; Show me; Give me a look. (The two options in French here refer to whether you’re addressing someone with the tu or the vous form, respectively.)

Dis voir. / Dites voir. Tell me.

Ton avis n’a rien à voir avec nos décisions. Your opinion has nothing to do with our decisions!

Voir is also part of a small group of verbs which can sometimes be followed by another infinitive without a preposition. Here are a couple of common examples:

Je les ai vus partir ce matin. I saw them leave this morning.

Ils ne m’avaient pas vu parler à la réunion. They hadn’t seen me speak at the meeting.

We hope that you can now see how voir works in everyday French, and that you’re looking forward to seeing what next week’s blog has in store!

Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.