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 hide.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cache | I hide | |
| tu | caches | you hide | |
| il / elle / on | cache | he / she / it hideson: we hide / one hides | |
| nous | cachons | we hide | |
| vous | cachez | you hide | |
| ils / elles | cachent | they hide |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul cache le cadeau dans un placard.
Paul hides the gift in a cupboard.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai caché | I hid | |
| tu | as caché | you hid | |
| il / elle / on | a caché | he / she / it hidon: we hid / one hid | |
| nous | avons caché | we hid | |
| vous | avez caché | you hid | |
| ils / elles | ont caché | they hid |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a caché le cadeau dans un placard.
Yesterday, Paul hid the gift in a cupboard.
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’ | cachais | I used to hide | |
| tu | cachais | you used to hide | |
| il / elle / on | cachait | he / she / it used to hideon: we used to hide / one used to hide | |
| nous | cachions | we used to hide | |
| vous | cachiez | you used to hide | |
| ils / elles | cachaient | they used to hide |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul cachait le cadeau dans un placard.
Back then, Paul used to hide the gift in a cupboard.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cacherai | I will hide | |
| tu | cacheras | you will hide | |
| il / elle / on | cachera | he / she / it will hideon: we will hide / one will hide | |
| nous | cacherons | we will hide | |
| vous | cacherez | you will hide | |
| ils / elles | cacheront | they will hide |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul cachera le cadeau dans un placard.
Later, Paul will hide the gift in a cupboard.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cacherais | I would hide | |
| tu | cacherais | you would hide | |
| il / elle / on | cacherait | he / she / it would hideon: we would hide / one would hide | |
| nous | cacherions | we would hide | |
| vous | cacheriez | you would hide | |
| ils / elles | cacheraient | they would hide |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul cacherait le cadeau dans un placard.
Paul would hide the gift in a cupboard.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cache | (that) I hide | |
| tu | caches | (that) you hide | |
| il / elle / on | cache | (that) he / she / it hideson: (that) we hide / one hides | |
| nous | cachions | (that) we hide | |
| vous | cachiez | (that) you hide | |
| ils / elles | cachent | (that) they hide |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul cache le cadeau dans un placard.
It is possible that Paul hides the gift in a cupboard.
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 hide
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