irrégulières

Irrégulières is the feminine plural form of the French adjective irrégulier. In French grammar, it is used to describe forms that do not follow regular patterns of conjugation, declension, or inflection. The full set of forms is irrégulier (masculine singular), irrégulière (feminine singular), irréguliers (masculine plural), and irrégulières (feminine plural). The expression formes irrégulières is common when discussing anomalies in a word’s morphology.

In practice, irrégulières most often refer to irregular verbs, known as verbes irréguliers. French contains many verbs that do not follow standard endings in one or more tenses, such as être, avoir, aller, faire, venir. Learners must memorize their conjugations rather than rely on regular patterns.

Irrégulières can also describe irregular nouns or adjectives whose plural or feminine forms do not follow regular rules. For nouns, irregular plurals occur in a variety of words, such as œil becoming yeux. For adjectives, some words have non-standard feminine forms or plural agreements, though many adjectives follow regular rules.

Linguistically, irregularities arise from historical sound changes, analogy, or borrowing from other languages. In language descriptions, labeling a form as irrégulière helps categorize deviations from productive morphological patterns and guides analysis and teaching. The concept is used across languages, though the specific forms of irregularities vary by language.