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 move.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | bouge | I move | |
| tu | bouges | you move | |
| il / elle / on | bouge | he / she / it moveson: we move / one moves | |
| nous | bougeons | we move | |
| vous | bougez | you move | |
| ils / elles | bougent | they move |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul bouge les chaises pour faire de la place.
Paul moves the chairs to make room.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai bougé | I moved | |
| tu | as bougé | you moved | |
| il / elle / on | a bougé | he / she / it movedon: we moved / one moved | |
| nous | avons bougé | we moved | |
| vous | avez bougé | you moved | |
| ils / elles | ont bougé | they moved |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a bougé les chaises pour faire de la place.
Yesterday, Paul moved the chairs to make room.
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’ | bougeais | I used to move | |
| tu | bougeais | you used to move | |
| il / elle / on | bougeait | he / she / it used to moveon: we used to move / one used to move | |
| nous | bougions | we used to move | |
| vous | bougiez | you used to move | |
| ils / elles | bougeaient | they used to move |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul bougeait les chaises pour faire de la place.
Back then, Paul used to move the chairs to make room.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | bougerai | I will move | |
| tu | bougeras | you will move | |
| il / elle / on | bougera | he / she / it will moveon: we will move / one will move | |
| nous | bougerons | we will move | |
| vous | bougerez | you will move | |
| ils / elles | bougeront | they will move |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul bougera les chaises pour faire de la place.
Later, Paul will move the chairs to make room.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | bougerais | I would move | |
| tu | bougerais | you would move | |
| il / elle / on | bougerait | he / she / it would moveon: we would move / one would move | |
| nous | bougerions | we would move | |
| vous | bougeriez | you would move | |
| ils / elles | bougeraient | they would move |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul bougerait les chaises pour faire de la place.
Paul would move the chairs to make room.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | bouge | (that) I move | |
| tu | bouges | (that) you move | |
| il / elle / on | bouge | (that) he / she / it moveson: (that) we move / one moves | |
| nous | bougions | (that) we move | |
| vous | bougiez | (that) you move | |
| ils / elles | bougent | (that) they move |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul bouge les chaises pour faire de la place.
It is possible that Paul moves the chairs to make room.
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 move (in general)
- to budge
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