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Level: A1 (Beginner)
🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier, a native speaker & professional voice artist from France
The French Word of the Day is finir, which means “to finish.” It’s a regular -ir verb every learner should know, and today’s example sentences will show you its five main uses.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Finir meaning
Finir is a regular verb meaning “to finish” or “to end”. It can be followed by a direct object (finir un projet — to finish a project), by de + infinitive (finir de lire — to finish reading), or by an adverb (l’histoire finit bien — the story ends well). You’ll also see finir par + infinitive, which means “to end up doing” (il a fini par accepter — he ended up accepting).
🎧 Finir pronunciation
Finir is pronounced /fi.niʁ/, roughly “fee-neer.” The fi- sounds like “ee,” the -nir rhymes with “near.”
📝 French and English examples
Finir – to finish
1. Finir + noun — to finish something
Je finis mes devoirs maintenant.
I’m finishing my homework now.
2. Finir à + time
Le film finit à dix heures.
The movie ends at ten o’clock.
3. Finir par + infinitive — to end up doing something
Il a fini par accepter l’invitation.
He ended up accepting the invitation.
4. Finir de + infinitive — to finish doing something
J’ai fini de lire le livre hier soir.
I finished reading the book last night.
5. Finir + adverb — to finish / end + adverb
L’histoire finit bien avec un mariage heureux.
The story ends well with a happy wedding.
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📊 Finir conjugation
Here’s the basic finir conjugation in the present tense.
- je finis — I finish / I am finishing
- tu finis — you finish / you are finishing (informal singular)
- il / elle / on finit — he / she / one finishes / is finishing
- nous finissons — we finish / we are finishing
- vous finissez — you finish / you are finishing (formal singular or plural)
- ils / elles finissent — they finish / they are finishing
🔗 Related words and expressions
- en finir (avec) — to put an end to / get it over with
- finir en beauté — to finish on a high note
- finir mal / bien — to end badly / well
- mettre fin à — to put an end to
- à la fin — in the end / finally
- terminer — to finish / complete
- achever — to complete / bring to an end
- la fin — the end
📊 Master the conjugations of finir!
Now that you’ve gone through these examples of finir, check out my updated audio verb conjugations!
👉 Finir conjugation charts »
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