Assistes

Assistes is a form of the French verb assister. It is the second-person singular present indicative form, corresponding to the English phrase you attend or you assist, depending on the sense of assister. The verb has two main meanings: to attend or to help. When used with the preposition à (assister à), it means to attend an event or to be present at something. Without à, assister can mean to help or support someone, though in everyday French, aider is more commonly used for “to help.”

Usage and nuance

The sense of assister depends on context. To say you attend a meeting, you would use tu assistes à la réunion. To describe providing help or service, you might use assister in a more formal or transitive sense, for example assister quelqu’un dans son travail (to assist someone in their work) or, in a service context, assister un patient. In practice, the more frequent everyday verb for "to help" is typically aider, while assister is more common in formal, written, or institutional language and in expressions related to attendance at events.

Conjugation notes

As a member of the first conjugation pattern for -er verbs, assister has regular present tense forms: j’assiste, tu assistes, il assiste, nous assistons, vous assistez, ils assistant. The form tu assistes corresponds to the standard second-person singular. The spelling assistes is the written form for that person in the present tense; before a vowel, it contracts to j’assiste. The noun assistant and feminine assistante are related but distinct parts of speech.