French grammar · Intermediate
-ier Verbs in French: Étudier, Oublier, and the Double-I Problem
Verbs ending in -ier, such as étudier, oublier, and remercier, are ordinary -er verbs whose stem happens to end in i. That produces two oddities in writing: a doubled i in the imperfect and subjunctive forms of nous and vous, and a silent e that follows the i in four of the six present-tense forms.
Nous étudiions le soir quand nous étions étudiants.
We used to study in the evenings when we were students.
What it is
An -ier verb is not a fourth conjugation. Remove the -er from étudier and you get étudi-, a stem ending in a vowel, and then the standard endings attach as usual. The complications are entirely orthographic: some endings begin with i, and adding one i to another gives a spelling that looks like a mistake and isn't.
étudier → j'étudie, tu étudies, il étudie, nous étudions, vous étudiez, ils étudient. — to study → I study, you study, he studies, we study, you study, they study.
How to spot it
Split the word before the -er, not before the -ier. Étudi-er, oubli-er, remerci-er. Once you see the stem as ending in i, every form follows from the ordinary -er pattern.
- J'oublie toujours mon parapluie. — I always forget my umbrella.
- Elle remercie ses collègues. — She's thanking her colleagues.
- Nous apprécions beaucoup ce vin. — We like this wine a lot.
- Ils crient trop fort. — They're shouting too loudly.
About two hundred verbs end in -ier. They take no new members and they have no irregular forms.
-ier Verbs Quick Reference
Étudier, form by form, with the spelling to watch
| Tense | je / j' | nous | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| présent | étudie | étudions | the silent e after the i |
| imparfait | étudiais | étudiions | double i in nous and vous |
| futur | étudierai | étudierons | i, e, then r |
| conditionnel | étudierais | étudierions | three vowels in a row |
| subjonctif | que j'étudie | que nous étudiions | double i again |
| passé composé | ai étudié | avons étudié | nothing unusual |
| impératif | étudie | étudions | no -s on the tu form |
| participe présent | étudiant | — | identical to the noun étudiant |
Common -ier Verbs Examples in French
The most useful -ier verbs in context:
Studying and Forgetting
- J'étudie le droit à Bordeaux.
- I'm studying law in Bordeaux.
- Tu oublies toujours ton badge.
- You always forget your badge.
- Nous étudions la question.
- We're looking into the question.
- Ils oublient de fermer la porte.
- They forget to close the door.
Oublier de plus an infinitive is the standard structure: j'ai oublié de te prévenir.
Thanking and Appreciating
- Je te remercie de ton aide.
- Thank you for your help.
- Nous apprécions votre patience.
- We appreciate your patience.
- Elle apprécie la franchise.
- She values honesty.
- Ils remercient chaleureusement le public.
- They thank the audience warmly.
Remercier takes de before a noun or an infinitive: merci de ton message, je te remercie d'être venu.
Copying, Checking, Publishing
- Je copie le fichier sur une clé USB.
- I'm copying the file onto a USB stick.
- Nous vérifions les comptes chaque mois.
- We check the accounts every month.
- Il publie un article par semaine.
- He publishes an article a week.
- Elles modifient le contrat.
- They're amending the contract.
This corner of the group is full of technical and administrative verbs, which is why they turn up constantly in written French.
Shouting, Folding, Skiing
- L'enfant crie dans le couloir.
- The child is shouting in the corridor.
- Je plie la carte en quatre.
- I'm folding the map into four.
- Nous skions dans les Alpes.
- We ski in the Alps.
- Elle prie tous les soirs.
- She prays every evening.
Crier, plier, skier, and prier have stems of a single syllable, which makes their double-i forms look especially strange: nous criions, nous priions.
How -ier Verbs Work
Every difficulty in this group is a collision between two vowels. Understand where the collisions happen and the spelling stops being surprising.
The Stem Ends in I
Take off the -er and you have étudi-, oubli-, remerci-, copi-. The i is part of the stem and never disappears, in any tense or any person. Everything else is the ordinary -er conjugation.
Je vérifie les chiffres.
I'm checking the figures.
étudier → étudi- + ending.
The Present Adds a Silent E
The endings -e, -es, -e, -ent are silent, so j'étudie ends in a vowel you can hear followed by one you can't. The i carries the whole sound, and the e is there purely because the ending requires it.
Elle publie ses photos en ligne.
She publishes her photos online.
j'étudie: the e is silent.
The Imperfect Doubles the I in Nous and Vous
The imperfect endings for nous and vous are -ions and -iez, both starting with i. Add them to a stem already ending in i and you get -iions and -iiez. Both i's are needed: one belongs to the stem, one to the ending.
Nous oubliions ses anniversaires.
We used to forget his birthdays.
étudi- + -ions = étudiions.
The Subjunctive Does the Same
Que nous étudiions and que vous étudiiez are spelled exactly like the imperfect, for exactly the same reason. In this group those two forms are identical in the two tenses, and only the sentence tells you which is meant.
Il faut que nous étudiions ce dossier.
We need to study this file.
Same spelling, different tense.
The Future Stacks Three Vowels
The future builds on the whole infinitive, so étudier plus -ai gives j'étudierai: i, e, then r. Nothing is dropped and nothing is added, which makes these forms long but entirely predictable.
Nous vérifierons les données demain.
We'll check the data tomorrow.
étudier + ai = étudierai.
Common Mistakes with -ier Verbs
Incorrect: Nous étudions beaucoup l'année dernière. — We studied a lot last year.
Correct: Nous étudiions beaucoup l'année dernière. — We studied a lot last year.
With one i the form is the present tense. The imperfect needs both: the stem's i and the ending's i. Time expressions like l'année dernière make the mismatch obvious to a reader.
Incorrect: J'étudi l'histoire de l'art. — I study art history.
Correct: J'étudie l'histoire de l'art. — I study art history.
The -e ending is silent but still required. Because the i already carries the sound, learners assume the verb is finished before the ending is written.
Incorrect: Je te remercie pour être venu. — Thank you for coming.
Correct: Je te remercie d'être venu. — Thank you for coming.
Remercier takes de before an infinitive and pour before a noun. The conjugation is fine here; the preposition is the trap.
Incorrect: Il faut que nous vérifions les comptes ce soir. — We need to check the accounts tonight.
Correct: Il faut que nous vérifiions les comptes ce soir. — We need to check the accounts tonight.
After il faut que the verb is subjunctive, and the subjunctive nous form of an -ier verb doubles the i. Written with one i it reads as the plain present.
-ier Verbs Across the Tenses
Four verbs, all fully regular. Watch the nous and vous rows in the imperfect and the subjunctive: those are the only places where anything looks unusual.
The present
Four of the six forms end in a silent e or -ent, so j'étudie, tu étudies, il étudie, and ils étudient are all pronounced the same way.
| Pronoun | étudier | oublier | remercier | crier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | étudie | oublie | remercie | crie |
| tu | étudies | oublies | remercies | cries |
| il / elle / on | étudie | oublie | remercie | crie |
| nous | étudions | oublions | remercions | crions |
| vous | étudiez | oubliez | remerciez | criez |
| ils / elles | étudient | oublient | remercient | crient |
Nous étudions and vous étudiez have a single i. It's only the imperfect that doubles it.
The imperfect and the subjunctive
Both tenses build on the nous stem and both use endings that begin with i for nous and vous. The result is the double i that gives this group its reputation.
| Pronoun | imparfait (étudier) | subjonctif (étudier) | imparfait (plier) |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | étudiais | que j'étudie | pliais |
| tu | étudiais | que tu étudies | pliais |
| il / elle / on | étudiait | qu'il étudie | pliait |
| nous | étudiions | que nous étudiions | pliions |
| vous | étudiiez | que vous étudiiez | pliiez |
| ils / elles | étudiaient | qu'ils étudient | pliaient |
Nous pliions is four letters of vowel in a row. It's correct, and it's the reason many writers quietly rephrase the sentence.
The future, the conditional, and the compound past
The future and conditional attach their endings to the full infinitive. The participle is -é, so the compound past is entirely unremarkable.
| Pronoun | futur | conditionnel | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | étudierai | étudierais | ai étudié |
| tu | étudieras | étudierais | as étudié |
| il / elle / on | étudiera | étudierait | a étudié |
| nous | étudierons | étudierions | avons étudié |
| vous | étudierez | étudieriez | avez étudié |
| ils / elles | étudieront | étudieraient | ont étudié |
In the conditional, nous étudierions has i, e, r, i, o: five vowels and one consonant across two syllables.
The Double I, and the Other -ier Words
Two things are worth separating here: the spellings that look wrong but aren't, and the fact that -ier is far more often a noun ending than a verb ending.
Spellings that look like typos
Nous étudiions, vous oubliiez, nous priions, vous skiiez: all correct. The first i is the stem, the second belongs to the ending. Removing either one produces a different tense or a non-existent form.
- Nous skiions chaque hiver.
- We used to ski every winter.
- Vous vous méfiiez de lui.
- You were suspicious of him.
- Nous nous ennuyions un peu.
- We were a little bored.
- Nous criions dans le vide.
- We were shouting into the void.
Nous nous ennuyions comes from ennuyer, a -yer verb, and shows the same collision from the other direction: y plus i.
-ier as a noun and adjective ending
Most French words ending in -ier are not verbs at all. The ending forms nouns for trades (un boulanger's cousin un cuisinier), for fruit trees, and for containers, and it forms ordinal adjectives like premier.
- un pommier
- an apple tree
- un cahier
- an exercise book
- le premier étage
- the first floor
- un policier
- a police officer
These take a feminine in -ière: la première, une infirmière, une cuisinière. They have nothing to do with the verb pattern.
The participle that doubles as a noun
The present participle of an -ier verb ends in -iant, and several of those forms are also nouns or adjectives in their own right, which can make a sentence briefly ambiguous.
- un étudiant en médecine
- a medical student
- En étudiant, on progresse.
- By studying, you make progress.
- un ingrédient variant selon la saison
- an ingredient varying with the season
The gerund always carries en: en étudiant, en oubliant, en remerciant.
-ier Verbs FAQs
- Are -ier verbs a separate conjugation group in French?
- No. They are regular -er verbs whose stem ends in i, so étudier splits as étudi- plus -er. All the standard endings apply unchanged; only the spelling of a few forms looks unusual.
- Why does nous étudiions have two i's?
- One belongs to the stem étudi- and one to the imperfect ending -ions. Both are needed: nous étudions with a single i is the present tense, and the two forms mean different things.
- How do you pronounce j'étudie?
- The final e is silent, so the word ends on the i sound. J'étudie, tu étudies, il étudie, and ils étudient are all pronounced identically, exactly as with any other -er verb.
- Which are the most common -ier verbs?
- Étudier, oublier, remercier, apprécier, vérifier, publier, copier, modifier, crier, plier, prier, skier, se méfier, and se marier. Almost all of them are transitive and take avoir in the compound past.
- Do all French words ending in -ier behave this way?
- Only the verbs. Most -ier words are nouns or adjectives: un cahier, un pommier, un policier, premier. Those form a feminine in -ière and follow no verbal pattern at all.