The verbs ‘aimer’, ‘haïr’, ‘plaire’ and ‘rendre’

The verb ‘haïr’ describes a very strong negative emotion, corresponding to the verb ‘to hate’. Its conjugation and pronunciation require special attention.

As the verb ‘haïr’ begins with an h aspiré, liaisons and contractions do not occur with this verb.

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The verb ‘plaire’ describes a positive feeling that something or someone creates for someone else. This emotion is less intense than what verbs such as ‘aimer’ and ‘adorer’ describe. In terms of conjugation, the use of the accent circonflexe in the third person singular has somewhat recently become optional in the present tense, but this change has not been adopted by all francophone users. This same conjugation pattern can be applied to the verb ‘déplaire’.

Unlike for similar verbs, such as ‘aimer’, the person experiencing the emotion takes up the role of indirect object (COI) for the verb ‘paire’, while the thing causing the feeling takes up the role of the verb’s subject.

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The verbe ‘rendre’ follows the same conjugation pattern as the verbe ‘répondre’ (see Unit 10).

When describing the fact that someone or something creates a change in state, emotion etc. in someone else, the verb ‘rendre’ is used. This type of situation is described by the use of the subject (who/what is creating this change), the conjugated verb ‘rendre’, the direct object (COD – what is being changed), and the adjective that describes the change. The adjective will agree with the direct object. Note that, in English, the verb ‘to make’ is typically used for these types of sentences, but its usual equivalent ‘faire’ is not used for this context in French.

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There are also a few expressions using the reflexive form of the verb ‘rendre’.

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