voir

Voir is a French verb meaning "to see." It is widely used in everyday speech to express perception, range from the literal act of seeing to figurative understanding. In French, voir participates in compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir, and its past participle is vu. The verb is irregular in several tenses: present tense forms are je vois, tu vois, il voit, nous voyons, vous voyez, ils voient; imperfect forms include voyais, voyais, voyait, voyions, voyiez, voyaient; the future tense is verrai, verras, verra, verrons, verrez, verront. The subjunctive forms are voie, voies, voie, voyions, voyiez, voient, and the imperative uses vois, voyons, voyez. As with many French verbs, the object pronoun often precedes the verb in speech and writing, as in je le vois (I see it).

Etymology traces voir to the Latin videre, from the Proto-Indo-European root *weyd- meaning “to see.” The sense has expanded through metaphor and idiom, yielding phrases such as voir clair (to see clearly) or voir le jour (to see the day, i.e., to dawn).

A related term, voir dire, comes from the same French roots and is used in legal contexts in many English-speaking jurisdictions. Voir dire refers to the preliminary examination of a prospective juror or witness to determine suitability or truthfulness before a trial or testimony.

In Canadian French media, Voir is also the name of a magazine and online platform that focuses on arts and culture. The publication and site, often associated with voir.ca, cover cinema, music, theater, and related cultural topics, reflecting the broader usage of the word as “to see” in cultural life.