I owe/must/have to in French 🇫🇷

je dois info.

Tips to remember the French word ‘je dois’:
– Associate ‘dois’ with ‘debt’ or ‘duty’ since they all begin with the ‘d’ sound and relate to an obligation.
– Think of ‘je dois’ as ‘I have a duty’ to help connect the meaning with the French words.

Explanations:
– ‘Je dois’ comes from the French verb ‘devoir,’ which means ‘to owe,’ ‘must,’ or ‘to have to.’
– It is an irregular verb in French.

Other words that mean the same thing:
– ‘Il faut’ (It is necessary)
– ‘Je suis obligé(e) de’ (I am obliged to)

Conjugations:

– Present:
– je dois (I must)
– tu dois (you must, informal)
– il/elle/on doit (he/she/one must)
– nous devons (we must)
– vous devez (you must, formal or plural)
– ils/elles doivent (they must)

– Simple Past (Passé Simple, less common in spoken language):
– je dus
– tu dus
– il/elle/on dut
– nous dûmes
– vous dûtes
– ils/elles durent

– Imperfect:
– je devais (I had to)
– tu devais (you had to, informal)
– il/elle/on devait (he/she/one had to)
– nous devions (we had to)
– vous deviez (you had to, formal or plural)
– ils/elles devaient (they had to)

– Future Simple:
– je devrai (I will have to)
– tu devras (you will have to, informal)
– il/elle/on devra (he/she/one will have to)
– nous devrons (we will have to)
– vous devrez (you will have to, formal or plural)
– ils/elles devront (they will have to)

– Conditional:
– je devrais (I should)
– tu devrais (you should, informal)
– il/elle/on devrait (he/she/one should)
– nous devrions (we should)
– vous devriez (you should, formal or plural)
– ils/elles devraient (they should)

Examples of sentences that use ‘je dois’:
– Je dois partir maintenant. (I must leave now.)
– Je dois finir mes devoirs. (I have to finish my homework.)
– Hier, je devais rencontrer mon ami. (Yesterday, I had to meet my friend.)
– Demain, je devrai me lever tôt. (Tomorrow, I will have to get up early.)
– Je devrais probablement étudier davantage. (I should probably study more.)

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