Entretenir 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.
Entretenir 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 »
Entretenir verb is conjugated in female form and in passive voice. Be careful, the past participle must agree with the subject.
Entretenir is conjugated in interro-negative form. The interro-negative form being obtained by inversion of the subject, the placement of the negative adverb follow the same rules as in negative form, giving the following rules:
- in interro-negative form, the adverb
« ne » is always placed first if the subject is a pronoun.
- in simple tenses, the adverbs (
« ne ...pas »,
« ne...plus »,
« ne...jamais », etc...) surround the verb
entretenir and the inverted subject pronoun.
- in compound tenses or in passive voice, the negative adverbs surround the auxiliary and the inverted subject pronoun.
For sound reasons, like in interrogative form, 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 »:
« ne sera-t-elle pas entretenue ? »,
« n'a-t-elle pas été entretenue ? »,
« n'aura-t-elle pas été entretenue ? ».
Finally, the interrogative form does not exist in subjunctive and imperative.
