All About the Regular French Verb Laisser (Leave)

Laisser  (to leave, to lose) is a regular -er verb that shares conjugation patterns in all tenses and moods with every other regular French verb ending in -er,  by far the largest group of French verbs.  Laisser is commonly used as a semi-auxiliary verb as well as a pronominal verb. Meaning No. 1: to Leave Laisser is a transitive verb  that takes a direct object  and means to leave something or someone.   Peux-tu me laisser de largent  ?   Could you leave me some money?  Je vais laisser la porte ouverte.   Im going to leave the door open.  Cela me laisse perplexe.   That leaves me perplexed.  Au revoir, je te laisse.   Good-bye, Im going/leaving.  Laisse, je vais le faire.   Leave it, Ill do it. Laisser is one of five verbs in French that mean to leave, and English speakers tend to confuse them. These are the essential differences: Laisser  means to leave something.Partir  is the most straightforward and simply means to leave in a general sense.Sen aller  is more or less interchangeable with  partir,  but it has the slightly informal nuance of going away.Sortir  means to go out.Quitter  means to leave someone or something, often implying a prolonged separation. Meaning No. 2: to Lose Laisser less commonly means to lose something. Notice the verb continues to be transitive in this sense; it still takes a direct object. Il a laissà © un bras dans laccident.   He lost an arm in the accidentElle a failli laisser sa vie hier.   She almost lost her life yesterday. Laisser As a  Semi-Auxiliary  Verb When laisser is followed by an infinitive, it means to let (someone) do (something).   Il ma laissà © sortir.   He let me go out.Laisse-le jouer.   Let him play. Laisser as a  Pronominal Verb Se laisser plus infinitive means to let oneself be(come), as in: Il sest laissà © persuader. He let himself be persuaded.Ne te laisse pas dà ©courager  !   Dont let yourself get discouraged! Expressions with Laisser Laisser  is used in a number of idiomatic expressions, including: laisser tomber   to dropLaissez-moi rire.  Ã‚  Dont make me laugh.Laisse faire.  Ã‚  Never mind! / Dont bother!On ne va pas le laisser faire sans rà ©agir  !  Ã‚  Were not going to let him get away with that! Laisser As  a Regular French -er Verb The majority of French verbs are  regular  -er  verbs, as laisser  is. (There are five main kinds of verbs in French: regular  -er, -ir, -re  verbs; stem-changing verbs; and irregular verbs.) To conjugate a regular French  -er  verb, remove the -er  ending from the infinitive  to reveal the verbs stem. Then add the regular  -er  endings to the stem. Note that regular  -er  verbs share conjugation patterns in all tenses and moods. The same endings in the table can be applied to any of the regular French  -er  verbs listed below the table. Note that the following conjugation table includes simple conjugations only. Compound conjugations, which consist of a conjugated form of the auxiliary verb avoir  and the past participle laissà ©, are not included. Simple Conjugations of the Regular -er- Verb Laisser Present Future Imperfect Present participle je laisse laisserai laissais laissant tu laisses laisseras laissais il laisse laissera laissait nous laissons laisserons laissions vous laissez laisserez laissiez ils laissent laisseront laissaient Pass compos Auxiliary verb avoir Past participle laiss Subjunctive Conditional Pass simple Imperfect subjunctive je laisse laisserais laissai laissasse tu laisses laisserais laissas laissasses il laisse laisserait laissa laisst nous laissions laisserions laissmes laissassions vous laissiez laisseriez laisstes laissassiez ils laissent laisseraient laissrent laissassent Imperative tu laisse nous laissons vous laissez More Common French Regular -er Verbs Here are just a few of the most common regular-er verbs: *All regular  -er  verbs are conjugated according to the  regular  -er  verb conjugation pattern, except for one small  irregularity in verbs  that end in  -ger  and  -cer,  known as  spelling-change verbs.**Though conjugated just like regular  -er  verbs, watch out for verbs that end in  -ier. aimer  Ã‚  to like, to lovearriver  Ã‚  to arrive, to happenchanter  Ã‚  to singchercher  Ã‚  to look forcommencer*  Ã‚  to begindanse  Ã‚  to dancedemander  Ã‚  to ask fordà ©penser  Ã‚  to spend (money)dà ©tester  Ã‚  to hatedonner  Ã‚  to giveà ©couter  Ã‚  to listen toà ©tudier**  Ã‚  to studyfermer  Ã‚  to closegoà »te  Ã‚  to tastejouer  Ã‚  to playlaver  Ã‚  to washmanger*  Ã‚  to eatnager*  Ã‚  to swimparler  Ã‚  to talk, to speakpasse  Ã‚  to pass, spend (time)penser  Ã‚  to thinkporter  Ã‚  to wear, to carryregarder  Ã‚  to watch, to look atrà ªver  Ã‚  to dreamsembler  Ã‚  to seemskier**  Ã‚  to skitravailler  Ã‚  to worktrouve  Ã‚  to findvisiter  Ã‚  to visit (a place)voler  Ã‚  to fly, to steal