Conjugations
All six tenses and their examples are shown below. Use the links above to jump to a tense. English translations use the meaning “to give birth.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | accouche | I give birth | |
| tu | accouches | you give birth | |
| il / elle / on | accouche | he / she / it gives birthon: we give birth / one gives birth | |
| nous | accouchons | we give birth | |
| vous | accouchez | you give birth | |
| ils / elles | accouchent | they give birth |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Marie accouche à l'hôpital.
Marie gives birth at the hospital.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai accouché | I gave birth | |
| tu | as accouché | you gave birth | |
| il / elle / on | a accouché | he / she / it gave birthon: we gave birth / one gave birth | |
| nous | avons accouché | we gave birth | |
| vous | avez accouché | you gave birth | |
| ils / elles | ont accouché | they gave birth |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Marie a accouché à l'hôpital.
Yesterday, Marie gave birth at the hospital.
The passé composé uses avoir. The table shows the unmarked participle; agreement with a preceding direct object is outside this reference.
Back to tense navigation ↑Imperfect Imparfait
Past habits, descriptions, and actions in progress.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | accouchais | I was giving birth | |
| tu | accouchais | you were giving birth | |
| il / elle / on | accouchait | he / she / it was giving birthon: we were giving birth / one was giving birth | |
| nous | accouchions | we were giving birth | |
| vous | accouchiez | you were giving birth | |
| ils / elles | accouchaient | they were giving birth |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Marie accouchait à l'hôpital.
Back then, Marie was giving birth at the hospital.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | accoucherai | I will give birth | |
| tu | accoucheras | you will give birth | |
| il / elle / on | accouchera | he / she / it will give birthon: we will give birth / one will give birth | |
| nous | accoucherons | we will give birth | |
| vous | accoucherez | you will give birth | |
| ils / elles | accoucheront | they will give birth |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Marie accouchera à l'hôpital.
Later, Marie will give birth at the hospital.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | accoucherais | I would give birth | |
| tu | accoucherais | you would give birth | |
| il / elle / on | accoucherait | he / she / it would give birthon: we would give birth / one would give birth | |
| nous | accoucherions | we would give birth | |
| vous | accoucheriez | you would give birth | |
| ils / elles | accoucheraient | they would give birth |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Marie accoucherait à l'hôpital.
Marie would give birth at the hospital.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | accouche | (that) I give birth | |
| tu | accouches | (that) you give birth | |
| il / elle / on | accouche | (that) he / she / it gives birthon: (that) we give birth / one gives birth | |
| nous | accouchions | (that) we give birth | |
| vous | accouchiez | (that) you give birth | |
| ils / elles | accouchent | (that) they give birth |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Marie accouche à l'hôpital.
It is possible that Marie gives birth at the hospital.
French forms omit the subject. Use j’ before a vowel sound. Vous is polite singular or plural “you”; on often means “we,” or the general “one.” English wording depends on the context: passé composé can also use “have,” and the imperfect can describe an ongoing action. Subjunctive translations here follow “it is possible that.”
Marie is the subject giving birth. The compound form uses avoir, so no feminine agreement is added to accouché here.
Meaning & usage
- to give birth
- to go into labour
- to give birth to, to deliver (a baby)
English glosses are a starting point. The meaning of a verb can change with context, a preposition, or se. Read the full dictionary entry ↗
Meanings and simple conjugation forms adapted from English Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki.org / Wiktextract. Passé composé forms combine the source auxiliary and past participle. Frequency scores from wordfreq 3.1.1 by Robyn Speer and contributors. Adapted data is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Entry source · Sources, download & limitations