Rire — to laugh | French Verb Chart

🇬🇧 Rire: the shortest participle in French

Rire — to laugh — owns the language’s most minimalist table: je ris, tu ris, il rit, nous rions, vous riez, ils rient, and a past participle of exactly two letters — ri: « j’ai ri » (I laughed) may be the shortest complete French sentence with a compound tense. The only spelling flicker is the double i of the imparfait nous/vous — nous riions, vous riiez — where stem-i meets ending-i and French, for once, keeps both. Futur je rirai, subjonctif que je rie; sourire (to smile) copies every form — j’ai souri — making this a two-for-one chart of good moods.

The laughing lexicon is modern French’s export department: mdr (mort de rire — dying of laughter) rules texting as our SMS lesson details, « c’est à mourir de rire » is its full-dress version, and le fou rire — the mad laugh — names the uncontrollable giggle fit every language needs a word for. « Tu ris ? » (are you laughing?/serious?), « pour rire » (as a joke — « c’était pour rire ! »), and the proverb « rira bien qui rira le dernier » (he who laughs last…) complete the set. Grammar footnote: rire DE quelqu’un is laughing AT someone — the preposition carries the cruelty — while rire AVEC keeps it kind. Drill by confession: j’ai ri, je souris, on a bien ri — the verb conjugates best in good company.