French Verbs that Take À or De Before Infinitives

When two verbs appear in a row in French, the first verb is conjugated and the second stays in the infinitive. That much is straightforward. What trips up most English speakers is what goes between them. In English, the answer is usually “to”: “I want to leave, I managed to find it, I forgot to call.”

In French, the preposition that follows the verb depends entirely on that verb. Some verbs take à, some take de, and some take nothing at all.

There’s no shortcut here; you have to learn which is which. But there are meaningful patterns that make the list much easier to memorize.

Verbs That Take No Preposition

Before getting into à and de, it helps to know that a significant group of common verbs takes the infinitive directly, with no preposition at all. These fall into a few big groups:

• The modal verbs (devoir, pouvoir, savoir, vouloir)
• Verbs expressing personal attitude (adorer, aimer*, désirer, espérer, préférer, souhaiter)
• Movement verbs used without a direct object (aller, partir, sortir, monter, venir)
• Perception verbs (écouter, entendre, regarder, voir),

Faire and laisser are two other common French verbs that take the infinitive directly.

Elle veut partir tôt. (“She wants to leave early.”)
Je préfère rester ici. (“I prefer to stay here.”)
Nous allons chercher du pain. (“We’re going to get some bread.”)

*You may occasionally see aimer with an à before an infinitive in more literary contexts, but for your own purposes it should fall into the “no preposition” category.

Verbs That Take À Before the Infinitive

Verbs that take à can be loosely grouped by meaning, which makes them easier to remember as clusters rather than random lists.

Beginning, Continuing, and Persisting

Verbs that signal the start or continuation of an action take à:

French verb	Meaning	Example
se mettre à	to start, to begin	Il s’est mis à pleuvoir. (“It started to rain.”)
persister à	to persist in	Elle persiste à nier les faits. (“She persists in denying the facts.”)

Commencer and continuer are special: they take either à or de interchangeably with no difference in meaning.

Il commence à neiger. or Il commence de neiger. (“It’s starting to snow.”)
Elle continue à travailler. or Elle continue de travailler. (“She keeps working.”)

Aspiration, Success, and Tendency

Verbs expressing the effort toward or achievement of a goal also take à:

French verb	Meaning
arriver à	to manage to, to succeed in
chercher à	to seek to, to try to
parvenir à	to succeed in, to manage to
réussir à	to succeed in
tenir à	to be keen to, to insist on
viser à	to aim to
tendre à	to tend to

Je n’arrive pas à comprendre cette règle. (“I can’t manage to understand this rule.”)
Il tient à finir avant minuit. (“He’s insistent on finishing before midnight.”)

Hesitation and Unwillingness

Verbs expressing reluctance or resistance take à as well:

French verb	Meaning
hésiter à	to hesitate to
renoncer à	to give up on
répugner à	to be strongly reluctant to
rechigner à	to balk at

Helping, Teaching, and Training

Verbs that involve enabling or preparing someone to do something take à. Note that with these verbs, à introduces both the person and the infinitive:

French verb	Meaning
aider qn à	to help sb to
apprendre à qn à	to teach sb to
enseigner à qn à	to teach sb to
habituer qn à	to get sb used to
préparer qn à	to prepare sb for
accoutumer qn à	to accustom sb to

Apprendre and enseigner are the only two verbs in French that take both an indirect object preceded by à and an infinitive preceded by à: apprendre à quelqu’un à faire quelque chose (“to teach someone to do something”).

Encouragement, Forcing, and Inviting

Finally, verbs that push, pressure, or invite someone to act take à:

French verb	Meaning
encourager qn à	to encourage sb to
inciter qn à	to incite sb to, to lead sb to
inviter qn à	to invite sb to
pousser qn à	to push sb to
amener qn à	to bring sb to
forcer qn à	to force sb to
obliger qn à	to oblige sb to
contraindre qn à	to compel sb to
autoriser qn à	to authorize sb to

One useful thing to know: when forcer, obliger, and contraindre are used in the passive, they shift to de: être forcé de partir (“to be forced to leave”), être obligé de travailler (“to be obligated to work”).

Verbs That Take De Before an Infinitive

Unlike the à group, there’s no real common thread that runs through all verbs that take de. You’ll find verbs of deciding, trying, stopping, fearing, ordering, forgetting, and more. The groupings below make the list manageable.

Deciding, Agreeing, and Refusing

French verb	Meaning
accepter de	to agree to, to accept
choisir de	to choose to
décider de	to decide to
promettre de	to promise to
refuser de	to refuse to
résoudre de	to resolve to

Advising, Suggesting, and Persuading

French verb	Meaning
conseiller à qn de	to advise sb to
déconseiller à qn de	to advise sb not to
recommander à qn de	to recommend that sb
suggérer à qn de	to suggest to sb that
persuader qn de	to persuade sb to
convaincre qn de	to convince sb to

Trying and Attempting

French verb	Meaning
essayer de	to try to
tâcher de	to try to (more formal)
tenter de	to attempt to
s’efforcer de	to strive to, to make an effort to

Stopping, Finishing, and Avoiding

French verb	Meaning
arrêter de	to stop doing
cesser de	to stop, to cease
éviter de	to avoid doing
finir de	to finish doing
empêcher qn de	to prevent sb from
s’abstenir de	to refrain from

Forgetting, Ordering, and Fearing

French verb	Meaning
oublier de	to forget to
négliger de	to neglect to
omettre de	to omit to, to fail to
dire à qn de	to tell sb to
ordonner à qn de	to order sb to
demander à qn de	to ask sb to
avoir peur de	to be afraid to
craindre de	to fear doing
redouter de	to dread doing

Other High-Frequency Verbs with De

French verb	Meaning
mériter de	to deserve to
offrir de	to offer to
regretter de	to regret doing
remercier qn de	to thank sb for
risquer de	to risk doing
rêver de	to dream of doing
se souvenir de	to remember doing
se dépêcher de	to hurry to
envisager de	to consider doing, to plan to
projeter de	to plan to

Watch Out: Reflexive Pairs That Change Meaning

Several verbs exist in both a non-reflexive form (taking de) and a reflexive form (taking à), with a meaningful shift in meaning between them. These are worth memorizing as pairs.

With de	Meaning	With à	Meaning
décider de partir	to decide to leave	se décider à partir	to make up one’s mind to leave (after deliberation)
essayer de gérer	to try to manage	s’essayer à gérer	to try one’s hand at managing
risquer de tout perdre	to risk losing everything	se risquer à investir	to take a risk by investing
résoudre de changer	to resolve to change	se résoudre à changer	to come to terms with having to change

In each pair, the reflexive form implies more effort, reluctance, or internal deliberation than the straightforward non-reflexive version.

A Practical Note on Learning the De Verbs

There are too many verbs in this category to memorize purely by rule. The à group does have some logic underlying it: verbs of beginning, aspiration, helping, and encouraging cluster fairly consistently around à. The de group is more varied, but the most high-frequency verbs (essayer de, arrêter de, oublier de, décider de, refuser de, permettre de, demander à qn de) come up so regularly in everyday French that they’ll become automatic through enough exposure.

When you encounter an unfamiliar verb, look it up! French dictionaries list the preposition alongside the verb entry. Over time, patterns start to feel instinctive rather than memorized, and your guesses will start to be more accurate.

Next Steps

Verb + infinitive constructions underpin everything from expressing what you want and plan to do, to what you’re refusing, forgetting, or trying, and mastering them will help you on your journey toward intermediate or even advanced French. If you want to see some of these patterns in context, our lessons on using devoir, pouvoir, and vouloir cover the modal verbs that take no preposition, and the French infinitives overview is a good companion for understanding how infinitive constructions work more broadly.

The best way to move from knowing these patterns to using them automatically in speech is real conversation practice. Tutoring platforms like italki connect you with native French tutors for one-on-one sessions from around $10 to $15 per hour, which is exactly the kind of live practice that makes these preposition choices start to feel natural rather than calculated.