Grammatical conjugation

Grammatical conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from one basic form. Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood, voice, or some other language-specific factor or factors. When a verb is used to function as the action done by a subject, the verb must be conjugated in most languages.

For example, here's a sample conjugation of the English verb to be and its Latin and French equivalents, esse and être. Except for the infinitive, which is given in the present form, all the verbs listed are in the present indicative active.

to be / esse / être

Form / Person	English	Latin	French
Infinitive	to be	esse	être
1st singular	I am	sum	je suis
2nd singular	you are	es	tu es
3rd singular	he, she, or it is	est	il/elle est
1st plural	we are	sumus	nous sommes
2nd plural	you are	estis	vous êtes
3rd plural	they are	sunt	ils/elles sont

The grammatical conjugation of an irregular verb forms a model for a genre of joke called the self-serving conjugation. This satirizes the fashion in which violations of the Categorical Imperative may be cloaked in verbal obfuscation. For example: I delegate effectively, you play politics, he is in violation of his service level agreement.