How to Conjugate the French Verb "Acquérir" (to Acquire)

The French verb acquérir looks very similar to its English meaning "to acquire." That makes the word an easy one to add to your vocabulary. When it comes to conjugating the verb, you may find it to be a bit of a challenge. Don't worry, though. This lesson will help out with your acquérir conjugations.

Conjugating the French Verb Acquérir

The challenge with acquérir is that it is an irregular verb. This means that it does not necessarily follow a pattern. You will have to rely on your memory instead of any set rules. However, it does use the same endings as conquérir and it will be helpful to study the two together.

When studying these conjugations, use the chart to pair the subject pronoun with the proper tense for your sentence. For instance, "I acquire" is "j'acquiers" and "they will acquire" is "ils acquerront."

Subject	Present	Future	Imperfect
j'	acquiers	acquerrai	acquérais
tu	acquiers	acquerras	acquérais
il	acquiert	acquerra	acquérait
nous	acquérons	acquerrons	acquérions
vous	acquérez	acquerrez	acquériez
ils	acquièrent	acquerront	acquéraient

The Present Participle of Acquérir

To transform acquérir into the present participle, simply change the -ir to -ant and you have acquérant. This acts as a verb and can also be used as an adjective, gerund, or noun in certain circumstances.

The Passé Composé and Past Participle of Acquérir

The passé composé is a common way to express the past tense in French. To use it, you must use a conjugate of the auxiliary verb avoir. You will also use the past participle for all subjects and that is acquis.

For example, "we acquired" becomes "nous avons acquis" in the passé composé. Likewise "you acquired" is " tu avez acquis."

More Verb Conjugations for Acquérir

Depending on how far you go with your French studies, you may or may not use any of the following conjugations. This is particularly true for the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive, which are primarily used for formal writing.

The other two forms may be useful as they both imply a degree of uncertainty to the action of acquiring. The subjunctive verb mood is used when there is a level of uncertainty. Similarly, the conditional verb mood is useful for those times when the action may or may not happen.

Subject	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
j'	acquière	acquerrais	acquis	acquisse
tu	acquières	acquerrais	acquis	acquisses
il	acquière	acquerrait	acquit	acquît
nous	acquérions	acquerrions	acquîmes	acquissions
vous	acquériez	acquerriez	acquîtes	acquissiez
ils	acquièrent	acquerraient	acquirent	acquissent

You can also choose to use acquérir in the imperative. This is useful for short and direct commands or requests. When using the imperative, you can leave out the subject pronoun. Rather than "tu acquiers," you can just use "acquiers."

	Imperative
(tu)	acquiers
(nous)	acquérons
(vous)	acquérez