The analysis of French verbs presented in this monograph is neither a synchronic nor a diachronic description, but rather a theoretical achronic analysis whose goal is the explanation of the historical phonetic development of the French verb in terms of changes in the underlying abstract morphological forms. One of the basic premises of this book is that the French superficial phonetic forms are not derived from the Latin superficial phonetic forms, but that both are derived from abstract etymological forms.