Conjugation table
Irregular French commands: sois, aie, sache and veuillez
Learn the irregular French imperative sets for être, avoir and savoir, recognise veuillez, and choose the right command in a short quiz.
- A2
- 1 tenses
- Auxiliary: avoir
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
Être, avoir and savoir have special command forms: sois, aie, sache. Use veuillez + infinitive for a formal written request, as in Veuillez patienter.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
There are three imperative persons: one person you call tu, a group including you (nous), and one person or several people you call vous. The labels in brackets identify the person; leave the subject pronoun out of the command.
- Infinitive
- être
- Past participle
- été
- Present participle
- étant
- Auxiliary
- avoir
Impératif présentAsk someone to be a certain way; include yourself with “let’s”.
| (tu) | sois |
| (nous) | soyons |
| (vous) | soyez |
Soyons patients.
Let’s be patient.
What are the imperatives of avoir and savoir?
| Verb | (tu) | (nous) | (vous) |
|---|---|---|---|
| avoir | aie | ayons | ayez |
| savoir | sache | sachons | sachez |
Aie confiance en toi.
Have confidence in yourself.
Keep the final -e in aie. The command has no final -s.
N’ayez pas peur de poser une question.
Don’t be afraid to ask a question.
Sachez que je suis disponible demain.
Please be aware that I’m available tomorrow.
Sache que… introduces information deliberately: “know that…” or “remember that…”. The nous form sachons is less common, but useful in Sachons écouter (“Let’s know how to listen”).
How does the adjective agree after sois?
| Who you address | Command |
|---|---|
| Léa | Sois prête à neuf heures. |
| Hugo | Sois prêt à neuf heures. |
| Léa and Inès | Soyez prêtes à neuf heures. |
Sois and soyez stay the same for every gender. Prêt agrees with the person or people getting ready. In a negative, put ne… pas around the command: Ne sois pas impatient.
What does veuillez mean in French?
Veuillez confirmer votre rendez-vous.
Please confirm your appointment.
Confirmer stays infinitive after veuillez: there is no de between the verbs. In conversation, Pouvez-vous confirmer votre rendez-vous ? is another useful request. The written formula veuillez often appears in service messages.