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 give up.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cède | I give up | |
| tu | cèdes | you give up | |
| il / elle / on | cède | he / she / it gives upon: we give up / one gives up | |
| nous | cédons | we give up | |
| vous | cédez | you give up | |
| ils / elles | cèdent | they give up |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul cède sa place à une personne âgée.
Paul gives up his seat to an elderly person.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai cédé | I gave up | |
| tu | as cédé | you gave up | |
| il / elle / on | a cédé | he / she / it gave upon: we gave up / one gave up | |
| nous | avons cédé | we gave up | |
| vous | avez cédé | you gave up | |
| ils / elles | ont cédé | they gave up |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a cédé sa place à une personne âgée.
Yesterday, Paul gave up his seat to an elderly person.
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’ | cédais | I used to give up | |
| tu | cédais | you used to give up | |
| il / elle / on | cédait | he / she / it used to give upon: we used to give up / one used to give up | |
| nous | cédions | we used to give up | |
| vous | cédiez | you used to give up | |
| ils / elles | cédaient | they used to give up |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul cédait sa place à une personne âgée.
Back then, Paul used to give up his seat to an elderly person.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cèderai / céderai | I will give up | |
| tu | cèderas / céderas | you will give up | |
| il / elle / on | cèdera / cédera | he / she / it will give upon: we will give up / one will give up | |
| nous | cèderons / céderons | we will give up | |
| vous | cèderez / céderez | you will give up | |
| ils / elles | cèderont / céderont | they will give up |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul cèdera sa place à une personne âgée.
Later, Paul will give up his seat to an elderly person.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cèderais / céderais | I would give up | |
| tu | cèderais / céderais | you would give up | |
| il / elle / on | cèderait / céderait | he / she / it would give upon: we would give up / one would give up | |
| nous | cèderions / céderions | we would give up | |
| vous | cèderiez / céderiez | you would give up | |
| ils / elles | cèderaient / céderaient | they would give up |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul cèderait sa place à une personne âgée.
Paul would give up his seat to an elderly person.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cède | (that) I give up | |
| tu | cèdes | (that) you give up | |
| il / elle / on | cède | (that) he / she / it gives upon: (that) we give up / one gives up | |
| nous | cédions | (that) we give up | |
| vous | cédiez | (that) you give up | |
| ils / elles | cèdent | (that) they give up |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul cède sa place à une personne âgée.
It is possible that Paul gives up his seat to an elderly person.
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 yield
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