Conjunation

French verb conjugation

2,583 French verbs with full conjugation tables — every tense and pronoun.

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Most common French verbs

  1. être to be
  2. avoir to have
  3. faire to do
  4. aller to go
  5. dire to say
  6. pouvoir to be able to
  7. voir to see
  8. vouloir to want
  9. savoir to know
  10. venir to come
  11. prendre to take
  12. devoir to have to, must
  13. passer to go past
  14. trouver to find
  15. parler to speak
  16. falloir to be necessary (il faut: one must)
  17. mettre to put
  18. donner to give
  19. aimer to love
  20. demander to ask
  21. arriver to arrive
  22. penser to think
  23. regarder to look at
  24. rester to stay
  25. connaître to know
  26. partir to leave
  27. devenir to become
  28. répondre to reply
  29. entendre to hear
  30. appeler to call
  31. attendre to wait for
  32. sortir to go out
  33. vivre to live
  34. croire to believe
  35. comprendre to understand
  36. chercher to look for
  37. travailler to work
  38. laisser to leave
  39. entrer to enter
  40. commencer to begin
  41. retrouver to find
  42. revenir to come back
  43. écrire to write
  44. permettre to permit
  45. arrêter to stop; to arrest
  46. porter to carry
  47. rendre to give back
  48. suivre to follow
  49. expliquer to explain
  50. tenir to hold, to keep

French tenses explained

Present (Présent)

Use the présent for habits, what is true now, and what is about to happen soon. A single set of endings covers what English often splits into “I speak” and “I am speaking”.

Elle parle arabe et français.

Present subjunctive (Subjonctif présent)

The present subjunctive appears in subordinate clauses after desire, doubt, fear, need, and many impersonals, usually when the subject of the subordinate is different. Learn common triggers: il faut que, je veux que, je doute que…

Il faut qu'il parte avant midi.

Imperative (Impératif)

The imperative is for direct orders and advice to tu, nous, and vous. For many -er verbs, the tu form drops the final -s of the present (parle!); negatives use the subjunctive-like forms in practice.

Fermons la porte, s'il vous plaît !

Simple past (Passé simple)

The passé simple narrates completed past events in a literary or very formal style. In everyday conversation people use the passé composé instead, so you mostly meet this form in books and journalism.

Ils virent le roi s'approcher.

Imperfect subjunctive (Subjonctif imparfait)

The imparfait du subjonctif is a literary and formal past subjunctive. In modern speech, the present subjunctive usually replaces it for the same meaning.

Bien qu'il fût fatigué, il continua.

Imperfect (Imparfait)

The imparfait describes ongoing or repeated past actions and sets the background — how things were, what used to happen, weather, feelings. The passé composé, by contrast, marks single completed events.

Quand j'étais petit, j'allais souvent à la piscine.

Conditional (Conditionnel)

The conditionnel is for polite questions and requests, “would”-type hypotheticals, and what someone said would happen. It is also the usual consequent clause in si + imparfait → conditionnel patterns.

Pourriez-vous répéter, s'il vous plaît ?

Future (Futur)

The futur is for future plans and objective predictions. In speech, aller + infinitive is often clearer for the immediate future, while the simple future is common for facts further ahead or in writing.

Demain, nous dînerons chez eux.

Present perfect (Passé composé)

The passé composé is the main spoken past for completed, bounded actions (often with a time adverb). Use avoir with most verbs; être is required for a fixed group of motion/inchange and all pronominal verbs, with participle agreement when necessary.

Elle est venue tôt, puis elle a téléphoné.

Pluperfect (Plus-que-parfait)

The plus-que-parfait is the “earlier past”: one action was already over before another past moment. It answers “had already” when a story is anchored in a past time.

Déjà, il avait fini quand je suis arrivé.

Conditional perfect (Conditionnel passé)

The conditionnel passé states what would have been true, plans that failed, and unreal past if-clauses (often with si + plus-que-parfait in the apodose).

J'aurais dit oui, mais c'était impossible.

Future perfect (Futur antérieur)

The futur antérieur marks an action that will be finished before a later future moment (by then I will have…). It can also suggest a conjecture about a recent past fact in formal or literary use.

D'ici samedi, j'aurai lu le rapport.