26.1 Two-Stem Irregular Verbs
In the last lesson, you saw verbs that use two stems in the present subjunctive: one for je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles, and another for nous and vous.
Several common irregular verbs follow this same pattern. As always, the subjunctive endings stay the same.
To find the two stems, look at the present-tense ils/elles and nous forms:
| Verb | ils/elles stem | nous/vous stem |
|---|---|---|
| devoir (to be required to) | doiv- | dev- |
| recevoir (to receive) | reçoiv- | recev- |
| prendre (to take) | prenn- | pren- |
| venir (to come) | vienn- | ven- |
| tenir (to hold) | tienn- | ten- |
26.2 Seeing the Pattern
Devoir
que je doive → que nous devions
Recevoir
que je reçoive → que nous recevions
Prendre
que je prenne → que nous prenions
Venir and Tenir
These two verbs follow nearly identical patterns:
que je vienne → que nous venions
que je tienne → que nous tenions
As always, related verbs usually keep the same subjunctive pattern, so learning prendre, venir, and tenir also helps with the verb families you learned earlier.
Practice Time!
Master these verb conjugations from Lesson 26