Today we’ll look at a super useful and modern French verb which almost never appears in the textbooks: Télécharger, which means “to download”.
Télécharger – to download in French
Word origin
The French verb télécharger (to download) is comprised of two parts: The prefix télé and the verb charger. Télé comes from the Greek tele (from a distance). The modern French verb charger comes from the Late Latin verb carricare (to put into a chariot).
Present tense conjugation
Télécharger is a regular ER verb with a slight irregularity. This means that its endings are the same as all other regular ER verbs when conjugated in the present tense. The irregularity is that there is an extra letter-e inserted after the -g on the nous (we) form. This is done to give the -g a soft sound.
Je télécharge I download
Tu télécharges You download (singular, informal)
Il, elle télécharge He, she downloads
Nous téléchargeons We download
Vous téléchargez You download (plural, formal)
Ils, elles téléchargent They download
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses the impersonal expression il faut, which has many trasnations including “it’s necessary” and “you need/have to”. Other things one could télécharge are un film (a movie), un mp3 (mp3 file), un image (image file), un dossier (another word for file).
Il faut télécharger le ficher sur ce site internet.
You need to download the file on this website.
This next sentence uses the verb devoir, which translates to “must” or “have to”. The noun formulaire d’inscription can translate to either signup or registration form.
Vous devez télécharger le formulaire d’inscription.
You have to download the signup form.
Je télécharge toutes mes chansons préférées.
I download all my favorite songs.
Related lessons
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