How to Conjugate the French Verb "Admettre" (to Admit)

When you need to say "to admit" in French, you will use the verb admettre. Conjugating this verb is a little tricky, but there is a pattern as you will see in this lesson.

Conjugating the French Verb Admettre

Just as we add an -ed or -ing ending to verbs in English, we need to conjugate French verbs. It is a little more difficult and complex, but there are patterns involved.

While admettre is an irregular verb, there is a pattern here. In fact, all French verbs ending in -mettre are conjugated in the same way.

To find the correct conjugation, simply match the subject pronoun to the tense you need for the sentence. For instance, "I admit" is "j'admets" and "we will admit" is "nous admettrons."

The Present Participle of Admettre

You can use the present participle of admettre as a verb and it also works as an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances. The present participle is formed by dropping the -re and adding -ant to get admettant.

Using the Past Participle for Passé Composé

Rather than use the imperfect for past tense, you can use the passé composé. To do this, you need to conjugate the auxiliary verb avoir and use the past participle of admis.

To complete the passé composé, simply put the elements together. For instance, "I admitted" is "j'ai admis" and "she admitted" is "elle a admis."

More Admettre Conjugations

In the beginning, you should concentrate on the present, future, and passé composé forms. However, there may be instances when you need to use one of the following.

While the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive are used primarily in formal French writing, you may need the other two. The subjunctive is helpful when the verb action is subjective or questionable. The conditional is similar, though it's used to imply that something may or may not happen.

The imperative may be particularly helpful with admettre because it's used for short exclamations. When using it you can skip the pronoun. Rather than "nous admettons," you can simplify it to "admettons."