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 have.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai | I have | |
| tu | as | you have | |
| il / elle / on | a | he / she / it hason: we have / one has | |
| nous | avons | we have | |
| vous | avez | you have | |
| ils / elles | ont | they have |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul a un vélo rouge.
Paul has a red bicycle.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai eu | I had | |
| tu | as eu | you had | |
| il / elle / on | a eu | he / she / it hadon: we had / one had | |
| nous | avons eu | we had | |
| vous | avez eu | you had | |
| ils / elles | ont eu | they had |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a eu une bonne idée.
Yesterday, Paul had a good idea.
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’ | avais | I had | |
| tu | avais | you had | |
| il / elle / on | avait | he / she / it hadon: we had / one had | |
| nous | avions | we had | |
| vous | aviez | you had | |
| ils / elles | avaient | they had |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul avait un vélo rouge.
Back then, Paul had a red bicycle.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | aurai | I will have | |
| tu | auras | you will have | |
| il / elle / on | aura | he / she / it will haveon: we will have / one will have | |
| nous | aurons | we will have | |
| vous | aurez | you will have | |
| ils / elles | auront | they will have |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Demain, Paul aura plus de temps.
Tomorrow, Paul will have more time.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | aurais | I would have | |
| tu | aurais | you would have | |
| il / elle / on | aurait | he / she / it would haveon: we would have / one would have | |
| nous | aurions | we would have | |
| vous | auriez | you would have | |
| ils / elles | auraient | they would have |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul aurait plus de temps sans cette réunion.
Paul would have more time without this meeting.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | aie | (that) I have | |
| tu | aies | (that) you have | |
| il / elle / on | ait | (that) he / she / it hason: (that) we have / one has | |
| nous | ayons | (that) we have | |
| vous | ayez | (that) you have | |
| ils / elles | aient | (that) they have |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul ait un billet supplémentaire.
Paul may have an extra ticket.
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 have; to own; to possess; to get
- to have (to experience or suffer from a state or condition)
- to have (an age)
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