How to Conjugate the Verb Nager (to Swim) in French

Nager  is the French verb that means to swim. When you want to change it to the present, past, or future tense, you will need to know how to conjugate it and a quick lesson will show you how thats done. The Basic Conjugations of  Nager There are many French verb conjugations, though well concentrate on the most basic forms for this lesson. These include the ways that you can say I am swimming, we swam, and they will swim in French. Nager  is a  spelling change verb  and it follows the same pattern as all other verbs that end in -ger. The change to the spelling is essential in order to retain the soft  g  sound in the verbs stem (or radical). For example, if you didnt include the  e  in the imperfect past tense  je  and  tu  form, then the  g  would sound like it does in the word gold because its followed by an  a. To fix that problem and keep the  g  sounding like it does in gel, the  e  is used. Its a minor issue, but a very important one to remember. As you study the  nager  conjugations, youll match the subject pronoun with the tense of your sentence. The chart will guide you as to which endings to add and when that spelling change occurs. When you want to say I am swimming, it is  je nage. Likewise, we will swim is  nous nagerons. Present Future Imperfect je nage nagerai nageais tu nages nageras nageais il nage nagera nageait nous nageons nagerons nagions vous nagez nagerez nagiez ils nagent nageront nageaient The Present Participle of Nager The spelling change appears again in the  present participle  of  nager. Thats because we add -ant  to form  nageant. Nager  in the Compound Past Tense Beyond the imperfect, another way to express the past tense swam is with the  passà © composà ©. This is the most common compound and one youll use often. In order to construct this, you will use the present tense conjugation of the  auxiliary verb  avoir  to match your subject, then attach the  past participle  nagà ©. For example, I swam is  jai nagà ©Ã‚  and we swam is  nous avons nagà ©. More Simple Conjugations of Nager You will use the conjugations of  nager  above most often, but there may be times when you will also need to know a few more basic forms. For instance, when the action of swimming may or may not happen, youll turn to  the subjunctive. When its dependent on something else, youll use  the conditional.   Though theyre used with less frequency, knowing or at least being able to recognize  the passà © simple  and  imperfect subjunctive  will be handy as well. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je nage nagerais nageai nageasse tu nages nagerais nageas nageasses il nage nagerait nagea naget nous nagions nagerions nagemes nageassions vous nagiez nageriez nagetes nageassiez ils nagent nageraient nagrent nageassent The  imperative  form  of  nager  is used for very short sentences such as, Swim! When using it, you dont have to include the subject pronoun, so you can get away with simplifying it to Nagez ! Imperative (tu) nage (vous) nagez (nous) nageons