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 stop.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | arrête | I stop | |
| tu | arrêtes | you stop | |
| il / elle / on | arrête | he / she / it stopson: we stop / one stops | |
| nous | arrêtons | we stop | |
| vous | arrêtez | you stop | |
| ils / elles | arrêtent | they stop |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul arrête la voiture devant la maison.
Paul stops the car in front of the house.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai arrêté | I stopped | |
| tu | as arrêté | you stopped | |
| il / elle / on | a arrêté | he / she / it stoppedon: we stopped / one stopped | |
| nous | avons arrêté | we stopped | |
| vous | avez arrêté | you stopped | |
| ils / elles | ont arrêté | they stopped |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a arrêté la voiture devant la maison.
Yesterday, Paul stopped the car in front of the house.
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’ | arrêtais | I used to stop | |
| tu | arrêtais | you used to stop | |
| il / elle / on | arrêtait | he / she / it used to stopon: we used to stop / one used to stop | |
| nous | arrêtions | we used to stop | |
| vous | arrêtiez | you used to stop | |
| ils / elles | arrêtaient | they used to stop |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul arrêtait la voiture devant la maison.
Back then, Paul used to stop the car in front of the house.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | arrêterai | I will stop | |
| tu | arrêteras | you will stop | |
| il / elle / on | arrêtera | he / she / it will stopon: we will stop / one will stop | |
| nous | arrêterons | we will stop | |
| vous | arrêterez | you will stop | |
| ils / elles | arrêteront | they will stop |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul arrêtera la voiture devant la maison.
Later, Paul will stop the car in front of the house.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | arrêterais | I would stop | |
| tu | arrêterais | you would stop | |
| il / elle / on | arrêterait | he / she / it would stopon: we would stop / one would stop | |
| nous | arrêterions | we would stop | |
| vous | arrêteriez | you would stop | |
| ils / elles | arrêteraient | they would stop |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul arrêterait la voiture devant la maison.
Paul would stop the car in front of the house.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | arrête | (that) I stop | |
| tu | arrêtes | (that) you stop | |
| il / elle / on | arrête | (that) he / she / it stopson: (that) we stop / one stops | |
| nous | arrêtions | (that) we stop | |
| vous | arrêtiez | (that) you stop | |
| ils / elles | arrêtent | (that) they stop |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul arrête la voiture devant la maison.
It is possible that Paul stops the car in front of the house.
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 stop, to come to a standstill; to halt, to stop from moving
- to arrest (someone, a criminal, etc.)
- to stop, to cease (an activity)
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