vouloir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French voloir, voleir, from Vulgar Latin volēre, regularized from Latin velle.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /vu.lwaʁ/
  • audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -waʁ

Verb

vouloir

  1. (transitive) to want, wish, desire
    Je veux voir le soleil.
    I want to see the sun.
    Hitler voulait la guerre, mais beaucoup n’en étaient pas conscients.
    Hitler wanted war, but many were not aware of it.
  2. (reflexive) to see oneself as; to give the impression of, to seem

Usage notes
  • vouloir que takes the subjunctive.
  • The second-person singular and plural imperatives have alternative forms: veuille and veuillez, which have slight differences in usage. See individual articles for details.

Conjugation
Conjugation of vouloir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive simple vouloir
compound avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1 simple voulant
/vu.lɑ̃/
compound ayant + past participle
past participle voulu
/vu.ly/
singular plural
first second third first second third
indicative je (j’) tu il, elle, on nous vous ils, elles
(simple
tenses)		 present veux
/vø/		 veux
/vø/		 veut
/vø/		 voulons
/vu.lɔ̃/		 voulez
/vu.le/		 veulent
/vœl/
imperfect voulais
/vu.lɛ/		 voulais
/vu.lɛ/		 voulait
/vu.lɛ/		 voulions
/vu.ljɔ̃/		 vouliez
/vu.lje/		 voulaient
/vu.lɛ/
past historic2 voulus
/vu.ly/		 voulus
/vu.ly/		 voulut
/vu.ly/		 voulûmes
/vu.lym/		 voulûtes
/vu.lyt/		 voulurent
/vu.lyʁ/
future voudrai
/vu.dʁe/		 voudras
/vu.dʁa/		 voudra
/vu.dʁa/		 voudrons
/vu.dʁɔ̃/		 voudrez
/vu.dʁe/		 voudront
/vu.dʁɔ̃/
conditional voudrais
/vu.dʁɛ/		 voudrais
/vu.dʁɛ/		 voudrait
/vu.dʁɛ/		 voudrions
/vu.dʁi.jɔ̃/		 voudriez
/vu.dʁi.je/		 voudraient
/vu.dʁɛ/
(compound
tenses)		 present perfect present indicative of avoir + past participle
pluperfect imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
past anterior2 past historic of avoir + past participle
future perfect future of avoir + past participle
conditional perfect conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive que je (j’) que tu qu’il, qu’elle que nous que vous qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple
tenses)		 present veuille
/vœj/		 veuilles
/vœj/		 veuille
/vœj/		 voulions
/vu.ljɔ̃/		 vouliez
/vu.lje/		 veuillent
/vœj/
imperfect2 voulusse
/vu.lys/		 voulusses
/vu.lys/		 voulût
/vu.ly/		 voulussions
/vu.ly.sjɔ̃/		 voulussiez
/vu.ly.sje/		 voulussent
/vu.lys/
(compound
tenses)		 past present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
pluperfect2 imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative – tu – nous vous –
simple — veux or veuille
/vø/ or /vœj/		 — voulons or veuillons
/vu.lɔ̃/ or /vœ.jɔ̃/		 voulez or veuillez
/vu.le/ or /vœ.je/		 —
compound — simple imperative of avoir + past participle — simple imperative of avoir + past participle simple imperative of avoir + past participle —
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
  • past historic → present perfect
  • past anterior → pluperfect
  • imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive
  • pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive

(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

Descendants
  • Saint Dominican Creole French: vlé
    • Haitian Creole: vle

Noun

vouloir m (plural vouloirs)

  1. will

Derived terms

Further reading
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