Poindre is a defective verb.
It can not be conjugated in all possible forms.
Here are several examples of defectives verbs:
bruire,
distraire,
traire,
extraire,
soustraire,
paître.
Poindre 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 »
Poindre 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-il point ? »,
« a-t-il été point ? »,
« aura-t-il été point ? ».
Finally, the interrogative form does not exist in subjunctive and imperative.
