Vouloir + Que + Subjonctif vs Vouloir + Infinitif

Few French sentences sound more obviously English than je veux toi venir avec moi. It is a word-for-word translation of I want you to come with me — and it is wrong in every imaginable way. French does not allow "want + person + infinitive." When you want someone other than yourself to do something, French forces you to open a new subordinate clause introduced by que, with a verb in the subjunctive. The correct sentence is je veux *que tu viennes avec moi*.

This page is about the single rule that solves dozens of mistakes anglophones make at B1 and B2: same subject takes the infinitive; different subjects take que + subjunctive. Once it clicks, you stop producing the je veux toi venir shape forever, and you also gain the key to aimer que, préférer que, souhaiter que, exiger que, demander que, and almost every other verb of wanting in the language.

The rule in one sentence

If the person doing the wanting is also the person doing the other action, use the infinitive. If they are different people, use que + subjunctive. There is no third option.

In the first sentence, the subject of vouloir and the subject of partir are the same person — je wants and je will leave. French uses the infinitive because there is no second subject to express. In the second sentence, je wants but tu will leave. Two subjects, two clauses, que in between, subjunctive on the second verb.

English doesn't make this distinction at the grammar level. English uses the same shape — want + person + to + verb — for both: I want to leave, I want you to leave. The to verb in English is doing double duty as both an infinitive (to leave) and a kind of disguised subordinate clause. French refuses this overload. As soon as a second person enters the picture, French requires a real clause with its own subject and its own conjugated verb.

Why the subjunctive

The subjunctive shows up here because vouloir que expresses a desire about an action that is not yet a fact — the action exists in the realm of the speaker's wishes, not in observed reality. French marks this shift from "real" to "wished-for" with a special verb form. Tu viens (you come / are coming) is indicative, an observation. Que tu viennes (that you come) is subjunctive, a desire. Once you internalize that the subjunctive marks non-asserted actions — wanted, doubted, feared, hoped — you can predict the trigger across the whole language without memorizing lists.

Notice how the second verb in each example sits in subjunctive form: rentre (instead of indicative rentre — same form here), lisions (instead of lisons), fasses (instead of fais). For most regular verbs the subjunctive looks identical to the present indicative in je, tu, il, ils; the differences are visible in nous and vous (lisions, lisiez) and in the irregular high-frequency verbs (aille, fasse, sache, puisse, veuille, soit, ait).

The four common ways to break this rule

Anglophones tend to produce four wrong sentences when they reach for "I want someone to do X." All four come from translating English shape by shape. Recognize them and you can stop yourself in real time.

Mistake 1: object pronoun + infinitive

There is no construction in French where vouloir takes a tonic pronoun followed by an infinitive. Toi cannot stand as the subject of venir without a que clause to host it.

Mistake 2: pour + infinitive

Pour in French expresses purpose (je travaille pour vivre — I work in order to live), not the content of a wish. You cannot use it to package a different subject the way English uses for in I'd love for you to come.

Mistake 3: que + indicative

This one is more advanced — the learner has correctly opened a que clause but forgotten the subjunctive. Native French speakers feel this as a clear error, the same way an English speaker feels I want that he comes.

Mistake 4: infinitive with two subjects

When the second subject is a noun rather than a pronoun, the same rule applies. Open a que clause and put the verb in the subjunctive.

Beyond vouloir: the whole family of volition

The same rule governs every French verb of wanting, wishing, demanding, ordering, allowing, and forbidding. Same subject = infinitive; different subjects = que + subjunctive.

The pattern is identical across all of them. Once you internalize it for vouloir, aimer que, préférer que, souhaiter que, exiger que, demander que, ordonner que, interdire que, défendre que, permettre que, and empêcher que fall into place automatically.

When the same subject also wants something

The flip side of this rule is just as important. When the subjects are the same, you must not use que. Producing je veux que je parte sounds as wrong to a French ear as I want me to leave sounds in English.

This same-subject restriction is rigid. Even aimerais que je is wrong; you say j'aimerais + infinitive.

Politeness shifts: voudrais and aimerais

In real conversation, je veux que tu viennes can sound abrupt — almost a command. French softens demands by switching to the conditional: je voudrais que tu viennes or j'aimerais que tu viennes. The grammar is identical (que + subjunctive); only the politeness changes.

In service contexts (restaurants, shops, asking favors), use the conditional almost always. Je veux in those settings sounds rude, the way I want a coffee would in English where I'd like a coffee is expected.

Negative wishes and refusals

The rule is the same when vouloir is negated. Ne pas vouloir que still triggers the subjunctive.

Notice the second example shifts to imperfect (voulait) because the wanting is in the past, but the dependent clause stays in subjunctive (pose). French does technically have a past subjunctive (posât), but in modern speech and writing the present subjunctive is used after past-tense main verbs in this kind of construction.

Demander que vs demander à quelqu'un de

A trap that catches even strong B2 learners: demander (to ask) has two structures, and learners often pick the wrong one.

• demander que
  • subjunctive — when you formally request that something happen.
• demander à quelqu'un de
  • infinitive — when you ask a specific person to do something.

The second structure is far more common in everyday speech.

The first sentence is what you'd say in casual conversation. The second has a more formal, almost bureaucratic register. Both are correct; choose by tone, not by rule.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

The shape I want you to come exists in English because English allows the to-infinitive to carry a hidden subject. French does not. Whenever the wanter and the doer are different people, French forces you to open a real subordinate clause with que and to mark the wished-for verb in the subjunctive. Whenever they are the same person, you must use the infinitive and may not say que. The boundary between these two shapes is one of the cleanest, most teachable rules in French syntax — and one of the most-broken by English speakers, because the English shape masks the underlying distinction.

Master this single rule and you have unlocked the whole class of vouloir que, aimer que, préférer que, souhaiter que, exiger que, demander que, interdire que, permettre que, and empêcher que. From there, the wider subjunctive system — verbs of emotion, verbs of doubt, impersonal expressions — becomes a series of variations on the same theme rather than an unrelated jungle of memorized triggers.