French
Falloir ("to be necessary", only the third-person forms with il exist; the present indicative conjugation (il faut) is certainly the most often used form of a defective verb in French), braire ("to bray", infinitive, present participle and third-person forms only), frire ("to fry", lacks non-compound past forms; speakers paraphrase with equivalent forms of faire frire), clore ("to conclude", lacks an imperfect conjugation, as well as first and second person plural present indicative conjugations), and impersonal weather and similar verbs as in English.
Read more about this topic: Defective Verb
Famous quotes containing the word french:
“The Russians imitate French ways, but always at a distance of fifty years.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Well, love is insanity. The ancient Greeks knew that. It is the taking over of a rational and lucid mind by delusion and self-destruction. You lose yourself, you have no power over yourself, you can’t even think straight.”
—Marilyn French (b. 1929)