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 bring to life.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | anime | I bring to life | |
| tu | animes | you bring to life | |
| il / elle / on | anime | he / she / it brings to lifeon: we bring to life / one brings to life | |
| nous | animons | we bring to life | |
| vous | animez | you bring to life | |
| ils / elles | animent | they bring to life |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul anime un personnage dans son film.
Paul brings to life a character in his film.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai animé | I brought to life | |
| tu | as animé | you brought to life | |
| il / elle / on | a animé | he / she / it brought to lifeon: we brought to life / one brought to life | |
| nous | avons animé | we brought to life | |
| vous | avez animé | you brought to life | |
| ils / elles | ont animé | they brought to life |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a animé un personnage dans son film.
Yesterday, Paul brought to life a character in his film.
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’ | animais | I used to bring to life | |
| tu | animais | you used to bring to life | |
| il / elle / on | animait | he / she / it used to bring to lifeon: we used to bring to life / one used to bring to life | |
| nous | animions | we used to bring to life | |
| vous | animiez | you used to bring to life | |
| ils / elles | animaient | they used to bring to life |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul animait un personnage dans son film.
Back then, Paul used to bring to life a character in his film.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | animerai | I will bring to life | |
| tu | animeras | you will bring to life | |
| il / elle / on | animera | he / she / it will bring to lifeon: we will bring to life / one will bring to life | |
| nous | animerons | we will bring to life | |
| vous | animerez | you will bring to life | |
| ils / elles | animeront | they will bring to life |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul animera un personnage dans son film.
Later, Paul will bring to life a character in his film.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | animerais | I would bring to life | |
| tu | animerais | you would bring to life | |
| il / elle / on | animerait | he / she / it would bring to lifeon: we would bring to life / one would bring to life | |
| nous | animerions | we would bring to life | |
| vous | animeriez | you would bring to life | |
| ils / elles | animeraient | they would bring to life |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul animerait un personnage dans son film.
Paul would bring to life a character in his film.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | anime | (that) I bring to life | |
| tu | animes | (that) you bring to life | |
| il / elle / on | anime | (that) he / she / it brings to lifeon: (that) we bring to life / one brings to life | |
| nous | animions | (that) we bring to life | |
| vous | animiez | (that) you bring to life | |
| ils / elles | animent | (that) they bring to life |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul anime un personnage dans son film.
It is possible that Paul brings to life a character in his film.
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.”
Meaning & usage
- to animate (give something life)
- to animate (give vigour)
- to animate (draw animation)
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