realalchemist

[long furnace]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[ocean valley]

.pronounce vouloir

[long furnace]

Pronounciation Ressources on: **vouloir**

Ces liens vont vous rediriger vers les sites web correspondants, et n'ont rien à voir avec le serveur / Those links will redirect you to the corresponding websites, and have nothing to do with the server

Forvo

https://forvo.com/word/vouloir/#fr
(cette URL pourrait ne pas fonctionner / this URL might not work)

Youglish

https://youglish.com/pronounce/vouloir/french

Wiktionary

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/vouloir#Prononciation

Jan 18, 2026, 5:54 PM

[ocean valley]

you can get recordings
and wiktionary always provides the IPA for it

\vu.lwaʁ\ is the IPA, detailing the sounds needed to pronounce the word

[formal sage]

One of the example conjugations on the Collins dictionary is "Je l’ai vexé sans le vouloir." What is Je l'ai?

[ocean valley]

"ai" is the present tense je conjugation for "avoir"
it is used as a helper verb to form passé composé, a past tense

"l' " is a direct object pronoun
it replaces the object (target) of the verb, meaning the person who's been offended

Je => I
l' => him
ai vexé => offended
je l'ai vexé => I offended him

[formal sage]

What about "ai vexe" translates to "Offended"? Vouloir means to want so I'm really confused?

[ocean valley]

vouloir is not part of the sentence "je l'ai vexé"
je l'ai vexé sans le vouloir => I offended him unintentionally (lit. I offended him without wanting it)

vexer is the verb to offend/upset

[formal sage]

I'm so stupid. My apolagies

[ocean valley]

confusions happen dw

[formal sage]

This stupid language is too hard to learn

[ocean valley]

is there something else you're confused about?

[formal sage]

It just seems really complicated

The page has past and future conjugations too. Is it neccessary to learn all of them?

[ocean valley]

are you looking up conjugations?

[formal sage]

What do you mean?

[ocean valley]

I don't know what page you're talking about

[formal sage]

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/vouloir

[ocean valley]

French has many tenses, even more than what is listed here.
Conjugation is one of those things you'll be learning and improving on all throughout your journey. It may seem overwhelming at first, but don't look at all there can be and focus on what you need right now. Don't try to learn too much at once.

Have you only been learning present tense until now?

[formal sage]

I think so

[ocean valley]

If so, you might wanna keep it at that until you're ready to learn more.
Focus on one tense at a time. Present tense is the foundation to all other tenses.
When you feel pretty comfortable with that tense and are ready to move onto another tense to expand your abilities, you might wanna look into passé composé, then other tenses in the future.