French has one ending, -ant, that does three completely different jobs. Confuse them and your sentences will wobble; separate them and you gain one of the most useful tools in written French â a way to pack two ideas into a single clause.
Take the nous form of the present tense, drop -ons, add -ant. This is the same stem that builds the imparfait, so you already know it.
| Infinitive | nous form | -ant form |
|---|---|---|
| parler | nous parlons | parlant |
| finir | nous finissons | finissant |
| prendre | nous prenons | prenant |
| faire | nous faisons | faisant |
| boire | nous buvons | buvant |
| manger | nous mangeons | mangeant |
Exactly three verbs are irregular â and they are the three you would guess:
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ă©tant | ay-TAHN | being (ĂȘtre) |
| ayant | ay-YAHN | having (avoir) |
| sachant | sah-SHAHN | knowing (savoir) |
Add en in front and you have the gérondif. It is invariable, and it has one iron rule: it must share the subject of the main verb.
It expresses three relationships, and context tells you which:
| Sense | French | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Simultaneity (while) | Il chante en travaillant. | He sings while working. |
| Means (by) | On apprend en pratiquant. | You learn by practising. |
| Condition (if) | En partant maintenant, tu l'auras. | If you leave now, you'll catch it. |
| Moment (as, on) | En sortant, j'ai vu Paul. | As I left, I saw Paul. |
En sortant du cinĂ©ma, j'ai vu Paul means I came out of the cinema. If Paul was the one coming out, this sentence is simply wrong â you would need J'ai vu Paul qui sortait du cinĂ©ma. Because the gĂ©rondif is anchored to the main subject, it can never introduce a new one. English is much looser here; French is not.
And note what the gérondif cannot do: it never expresses purpose. "I went out to buy bread" is Je suis sorti pour acheter du pain, never en achetant.
Adding tout either underlines that two things happen at once, or introduces a contradiction.
Il lit tout en Ă©coutant de la musique. â He reads while listening to music. (emphatic simultaneity)
Tout en Ă©tant trĂšs riche, il vit simplement. â Although very rich, he lives simply. (concession)
Without en, the -ant form is a participle. It is invariable, it behaves like a verb (it can take objects and adverbs), and its main job is to replace a relative clause with qui â which makes writing tighter.
| Relative clause | Participe présent |
|---|---|
| les gens qui habitent ici | les gens habitant ici |
| une loi qui interdit le tabac | une loi interdisant le tabac |
| les Ă©tudiants qui parlent trois langues | les Ă©tudiants parlant trois langues |
It also expresses cause, usually at the head of a sentence â a register noticeably more formal than parce que:
Ne sachant pas quoi faire, j'ai appelĂ© un ami. â Not knowing what to do, I called a friend.
Ătant malade, il est restĂ© chez lui. â Being ill, he stayed home.
Ayant fini son travail, elle est partie. â Having finished her work, she left. (the compound form: ayant/Ă©tant + participle)
You will also meet the fixed expression étant donné que ("given that"), which is simply this participle frozen into a conjunction.
Sometimes an -ant word has stopped being a verb and become a plain adjective. Then â and only then â it agrees in gender and number.
| Participe présent (invariable) | Adjectif verbal (agrees) |
|---|---|
| une histoire fatiguant les enfants (a story tiring the children) | une histoire fatigante (a tiring story) |
| des enfants obéissant à leurs parents | des enfants obéissants |
| une Ă©quipe gagnant tous ses matchs | une Ă©quipe gagnante |
Can you put a direct object or an adverb after it, or negate it with ne⊠pas? Then it is still a verb â participle, invariable. Can you replace it with an ordinary adjective like intĂ©ressant or difficile? Then it is an adjective â it agrees.
A handful of words spell the two forms differently. These turn up in exams precisely because they are easy to miss.
| Participle (verb) | Adjective | Adjective means |
|---|---|---|
| différant | différent | different |
| précédant | précédent | previous |
| provoquant | provocant | provocative |
| fatiguant | fatigant | tiring |
| communiquant | communicant | connecting |
| négligeant | négligent | negligent |
| Ă©quivalant | Ă©quivalent | equivalent |
The pattern is reliable: the verb form keeps the -gu- or -qu- of the stem, while the adjective simplifies to -g- or -c- and often ends in -ent.
The bare participe prĂ©sent is a marker of written French â administrative texts are full of les personnes souhaitant s'inscrire, toute demande parvenant aprĂšs leâŠ. In speech it is rare; people say les gens qui habitent ici. The gĂ©rondif, by contrast, is completely normal in conversation: J'ai appris ça en lisant le journal.
Identical grammar and identical register split. QuĂ©bĂ©cois speech uses the gĂ©rondif freely â En s'en allant, j'ai croisĂ© Manon. One thing to listen for: ĂȘtre aprĂšs + infinitive (Lesson 9) often does the work that a gĂ©rondif or en train de would do in France, so J'suis aprĂšs travailler and Je travaille can cover ground a gĂ©rondif might otherwise take.
Fill in en + the right form.
Write participe (invariable) or adjectif (agrees).
Rewrite qui + verb as a bare participe présent.
1. The -ant form is built from:
2. En sortant du cinéma, j'ai vu Paul tells us that:
3. Which is correct?