Contenir is a french third group verb. So, this verb is irregular and do not follow a regular conjugation pattern like first or second group verbs. Follow this link to see all the endings of the conjugation of most of the third group verbs :
conjugation rules and endings for the second group verbs.
Verbs derived from
tenir and
venir form a major group of verbs who gains a
d in the future and conditional. These verbs are the only verb to have a nasal vowel in the past historic and imperfect subjunctive.
Contenir is conjugated to the passive voice. Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed. This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.
Exemple in french:
- active voice:
« Le chat mange la souris »
- passive voice:
« La souris est mangée par le chat »
Contenir verb is conjugated in female form and in passive voice. Be careful, the past participle must agree with the subject.
Contenir verb is conjugated in interrogative form. For sound reasons, an euphonious
« t » is added to the pronoun of the third person:
« il »,
« elle »,
« on »,
« ils »,
« elles » except when the verb ends with
« t » or
« d »:
« sera-t-elle contenue ? »,
« a-t-elle été contenue ? »,
« aura-t-elle été contenue ? ».
Finally, the interrogative form does not exist in subjunctive and imperative.
