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 swing.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | balance | I swing | |
| tu | balances | you swing | |
| il / elle / on | balance | he / she / it swingson: we swing / one swings | |
| nous | balançons | we swing | |
| vous | balancez | you swing | |
| ils / elles | balancent | they swing |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul balance les bras en marchant.
Paul swings his arms while walking.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai balancé | I swung | |
| tu | as balancé | you swung | |
| il / elle / on | a balancé | he / she / it swungon: we swung / one swung | |
| nous | avons balancé | we swung | |
| vous | avez balancé | you swung | |
| ils / elles | ont balancé | they swung |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a balancé les bras en marchant.
Yesterday, Paul swung his arms while walking.
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’ | balançais | I used to swing | |
| tu | balançais | you used to swing | |
| il / elle / on | balançait | he / she / it used to swingon: we used to swing / one used to swing | |
| nous | balancions | we used to swing | |
| vous | balanciez | you used to swing | |
| ils / elles | balançaient | they used to swing |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul balançait les bras en marchant.
Back then, Paul used to swing his arms while walking.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | balancerai | I will swing | |
| tu | balanceras | you will swing | |
| il / elle / on | balancera | he / she / it will swingon: we will swing / one will swing | |
| nous | balancerons | we will swing | |
| vous | balancerez | you will swing | |
| ils / elles | balanceront | they will swing |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul balancera les bras en marchant.
Later, Paul will swing his arms while walking.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | balancerais | I would swing | |
| tu | balancerais | you would swing | |
| il / elle / on | balancerait | he / she / it would swingon: we would swing / one would swing | |
| nous | balancerions | we would swing | |
| vous | balanceriez | you would swing | |
| ils / elles | balanceraient | they would swing |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul balancerait les bras en marchant.
Paul would swing his arms while walking.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | balance | (that) I swing | |
| tu | balances | (that) you swing | |
| il / elle / on | balance | (that) he / she / it swingson: (that) we swing / one swings | |
| nous | balancions | (that) we swing | |
| vous | balanciez | (that) you swing | |
| ils / elles | balancent | (that) they swing |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul balance les bras en marchant.
It is possible that Paul swings his arms while walking.
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 toss, to throw away, to discard
- to denounce, to rat out on (to make a formal or public accusation against)
- to balance (to make the credits and debits of (an account) correspond)
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