-oir

See also: oir, OIr, oír, óir, óír, òir, oïr, and -óir

French

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /waʁ/

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French -eoir, from Latin -(āt)ōrium, a suffix attached to the supine stem of verbs to form neuter nouns denoting instruments or places. See also -oire f, inherited from Latin -(āt)ōria (the feminine version of this suffix), and -(at)oire m, a semi-learned borrowing from -tōrium that is found in nouns built on Latin supine stems. Cognate to English -ory and -or.

Suffix

-oir m (plural -oirs)

A suffix used on verbs to form masculine words for objects or tools used to do something.
‎accouder + ‎-oir → ‎accoudoir (“armrest”)

‎mirer + ‎-oir → ‎miroir (“mirror”)
A suffix used on verbs to form masculine words for places where something is done.
‎dormir + ‎-oir → ‎dortoir (“dormitory”)

‎abattre + ‎-oir → ‎abattoir (“slaughterhouse”)

Derived terms

French terms suffixed with -oir

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin -ēre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of second conjugation verbs. Compare Italian -ere, Romanian -ea, Romansch -air.

Suffix

-oir

A suffix forming infinitives of some verbs.

Usage notes

Verbs in -oir are fairly few and all of them are irregular to different degrees. The most important ones are asseoir, avoir, devoir, falloir, pleuvoir, pouvoir, recevoir, savoir, valoir, voir, vouloir.

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of -oir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	-oir
present participle or gerund¹	simple	-oissant /wa.sɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		-oi /wa/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	-ois /wa/	-ois /wa/	-oit /wa/	-oissons /wa.sɔ̃/	-oissez /wa.se/	-oissent /was/
	imperfect	-oissais /wa.sɛ/	-oissais /wa.sɛ/	-oissait /wa.sɛ/	-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/	-oissiez /wa.sje/	-oissaient /wa.sɛ/
	past historic²	-ois /wa/	-ois /wa/	-oit /wa/	-oîmes /wam/	-oîtes /wat/	-oirent /waʁ/
	future	-oirai /wa.ʁe/	-oiras /wa.ʁa/	-oira /wa.ʁa/	-oirons /wa.ʁɔ̃/	-oirez /wa.ʁe/	-oiront /wa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	-oirais /wa.ʁɛ/	-oirais /wa.ʁɛ/	-oirait /wa.ʁɛ/	-oirions /wa.ʁjɔ̃/	-oiriez /wa.ʁje/	-oiraient /wa.ʁɛ/
(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	-oisse /was/	-oisses /was/	-oisse /was/	-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/	-oissiez /wa.sje/	-oissent /was/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	-oisse /was/	-oisses /was/	-oît /wa/	-oissions /wa.sjɔ̃/	-oissiez /wa.sje/	-oissent /was/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	-ois /wa/	—	-oissons /wa.sɔ̃/	-oissez /wa.se/	—
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).