How to Conjugate the Irregular French Verb 'Servir'

Servir ("to serve," "to be useful") is an irregular French -ir verb. Below are the simple conjugations of the verb servir; they do not include the compound tenses, which consist of a form of the auxiliary verb with the past participle.

Within irregular -ir verb conjugations, there are some patterns. Two groups exhibit similar characteristics and conjugation patterns. Then there is a final, large category of extremely irregular -ir verbs that follow no pattern.

Servir lies in the first group of irregular -ir verbs that display a pattern. It includes dormir, mentir, partir, sentir, servir, sortir, and all of their derivatives, such as repartir. All of these verbs share this characteristic: They all drop the last letter of the stem in the singular conjugations. For instance, first person singular of servir is je sers (no v) and first person plural is nous servons (retains the v from the stem). The more you recognize these patterns, the easier it will be to remember conjugations.

Generally speaking, most French verbs ending in -mir, -tir, or -vir are conjugated this way. Such verbs include:

• dormir > to sleep
• endormir > to put/send to sleep
• redormir > to sleep some more
• rendormir > to put back to sleep
• départir > to accord
• partir > to leave
• repartir > to restart, set off again
• consentir > to consent
• pressentir  > to have a premonition
• ressentir > to feel, sense
• sentir > to feel, to smell
• mentir > to lie
• se repentir > to repent
• sortir > to go out
• servir > to serve, to be useful

• servir quelqu'un de / en quelque chose > to serve somebody with something / to serve something to somebody
• C'est difficile de se faire servir ici. /  It's difficult to get served here.
• Sers le café. > Pour the coffee.
• Puis-je te servir du poulet ? > Can I serve you some chicken ?
• Le dîner est servi ! > Dinner is ready / served !
• Sers-moi à boire. > Give / pour me a drink.
• Ils nous servent toujours les mêmes histoires aux informations. > They always dish out the same old stories on the news
• Servir la patrie / une cause > to serve country/ a cause
• On n'est jamais si bien servi que par soi-même. (proverb) > If you want something done right, do it yourself.
• Servir les intérêts d'une dette > to service a debt
• servir la messe > to say / hold mass
• Il a servi, ce manteau. > I got a lot of use out of this coat !
• Ça n'a jamais servi. >  It's never been used
• À toi de servir. (tennis) > Your serve.
• servir à > to be used for
• Ça ne sert à rien de lui en parler. > It's useless to talk to him / It's no use talking to him about it.