voit

Voit is the third-person singular present indicative form of the French verb voir, meaning to see. It is used with il, elle, or on to express that someone sees something: Il voit la ville, Elle voit clairement malgré ses lunettes. The verb voir is irregular, and its other present tense forms are je vois, tu vois, nous voyons, vous voyez, ils voient. The past participle is vu, and common compound tenses use the auxiliary avoir, as in il a vu.

Etymology and related forms: Voir comes from Latin videre, the ancestor of several related words in French and other Romance languages. Cognates include English view and video, which reflect the same root related to sight and seeing.

Usage notes: Voir can denote physical perception as well as mental perception or understanding. It appears in many common expressions, such as voir clair dans son esprit (to see clearly in one’s mind) or voir venir (to see something coming, to anticipate trouble). In interrogative and negative constructions, voyez-vous? or Je ne vois pas illustrate typical usage patterns. The verb often takes a direct object, as in voir quelque chose (to see something), and can be extended with adjectives or prepositional phrases to describe how something is seen.

Examples: Il voit bien malgré les lunettes. Ce qu’il voit me surprend. On voit venir le danger. Il a vu ce film hier.

See also: voir, voir venir, expressions using voir.