French grammar · A1 · Lesson 15
Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir + infinitive
Pouvoir (can), vouloir (want) and devoir (must) share one pattern: je peux, je veux, je dois; ils peuvent, ils veulent, ils doivent. They are followed directly by an infinitive, with no word for “to”: il veut gagner, “he wants to win”. In the negative, ne… pas goes round the first verb.
Last updated:
How does it work?
English “can” and “must” are odd little frozen words: no -s for “he”, no infinitive, no past of their own. Their French cousins are ordinary verbs with six forms each, and they share one shape.
| pouvoir (can) | vouloir (want) | devoir (must) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | peux | veux | dois |
| tu | peux | veux | dois |
| il / elle / on | peut | veut | doit |
| nous | pouvons | voulons | devons |
| vous | pouvez | voulez | devez |
| ils / elles | peuvent | veulent | doivent |
Look at the pattern, because it is the same for all three: je and tu end in -x or -s, il ends in -t, and all three sound identical (peux, peut: “puh”). Nous and vous go back to the infinitive’s vowel (pouvons, voulons, devons), and ils has a stem of its own: peuvent, veulent, doivent.
Then: the infinitive, straight away. No de, no à, no “to”: on peut cacher, “you can hide”; il veut gagner, “he wants to win”; je dois être honnête, “I must be honest”. The second verb never changes, whoever the subject is.
Negative: ne… pas goes around the first verb, the one that is conjugated: je ne peux pas arrêter, vous ne voulez pas chercher.
A few extras. Devoir also means “to owe”: je dois dix francs. Il doit être riche can mean “he must be rich” in the sense of “surely he is”. And the polite way to ask for something is not je veux, which sounds like a child, but je voudrais, “I would like”: learn it as a ready-made phrase for now.
Si, the anti-no. When someone says something negative and you want to contradict it, French does not say oui but si. “Lupin cannot hide the diamonds!” – “Mais si, il peut !” Oh yes he can. That is exactly how the narrator answers miss Nelly, twice.
What does it look like in the story?
These sentences come from lesson 15, “My camera”, where the narrator is crossing the Atlantic on the liner Provence with Arsène Lupin hidden among the passengers.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Dans un appareil comme ça, on peut cacher toutes les pierres de lady Jerland. | In a camera like this, you could hide all of lady Jerland’s stones. |
| Il veut gagner, et il gagne toujours. | He wants to win, and he always wins. |
| Je dois être honnête : avec lui, on perd son temps. | I must be honest: with him, you are wasting your time. |
Try it: Each sentence has two verbs side by side. The first one changes with the person. What form is the second one in? And where has English “to” gone?
« Tout sorcier qu'il soit, il ne peut faire que des diamants et des perles deviennent invisibles. »
Wizard though he may be, he cannot make diamonds and pearls become invisible. Maurice Leblanc, L’Arrestation d’Arsène Lupin (1905).
How is it different from English?
English modals are frozen: “I can, he can”. French ones conjugate like any verb: je peux, il peut, ils peuvent. And English “want to win” loses its “to” in French: il veut gagner.
What mistake do English speakers make?
Two slips to avoid. ✗ Je veux de gagner, a phantom “to”: ✓ Je veux gagner. And ✗ Il peut cache, conjugating both verbs: only the first one changes, so ✓ Il peut cacher.
Where can I practise it?
- Lesson 15: My camera: the story, the rule and interactive exercises, free.
- Review 3: lessons 11 to 15: this point again, in a summary table with the other lessons of the block.
- The A1 glossary: every word of the course, French to English.
← Big numbers. Faire and prendre · De and à + the article: du, des, au, aux →