Finir — to finish | French Verb Chart

🇬🇧 Finir in plain English: the model student of French verbs

Finir — to finish — is the OPPOSITE of irregular: it’s the official model of the second group, the pattern hundreds of -ir verbs copy exactly. Present: je finis, tu finis, il finit, then the signature -iss- plural — nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent. That -iss- carries the imparfait (je finissais) and subjonctif (que je finisse); futur je finirai on the intact infinitive; passé composé j’ai fini — and « fini ! » alone closes games, meals and arguments across the francophone world. Learn this one table and choisir (je choisis, nous choisissons), réussir (succeed), grandir, réfléchir, obéir, remplir and their hundred cousins conjugate themselves — the single best return-on-memory in French grammar after the -er verbs.

Two constructions upgrade finir from verb to storyteller. Finir de + infinitive: to finish doing — « j’ai fini de manger ». Finir par + infinitive: to end up doing — « il a fini par accepter » (he ended up accepting), the phrase French reaches for wherever English says “eventually”. Both take avoir, both appear daily, and the pair (de = completion, par = eventual outcome) is worth a flashcard each. Recognition tip for the whole second group: if an -ir verb’s nous-form has -issons, it’s a finir clone and 100% regular; if not (nous partons, nous dormons), it belongs to the sortir family two charts up. One question — « nous form? » — sorts every -ir verb you will ever meet.