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 heat.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chauffe | I heat | |
| tu | chauffes | you heat | |
| il / elle / on | chauffe | he / she / it heatson: we heat / one heats | |
| nous | chauffons | we heat | |
| vous | chauffez | you heat | |
| ils / elles | chauffent | they heat |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul chauffe la soupe dans une casserole.
Paul heats the soup in a saucepan.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai chauffé | I heated | |
| tu | as chauffé | you heated | |
| il / elle / on | a chauffé | he / she / it heatedon: we heated / one heated | |
| nous | avons chauffé | we heated | |
| vous | avez chauffé | you heated | |
| ils / elles | ont chauffé | they heated |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a chauffé la soupe dans une casserole.
Yesterday, Paul heated the soup in a saucepan.
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’ | chauffais | I used to heat | |
| tu | chauffais | you used to heat | |
| il / elle / on | chauffait | he / she / it used to heaton: we used to heat / one used to heat | |
| nous | chauffions | we used to heat | |
| vous | chauffiez | you used to heat | |
| ils / elles | chauffaient | they used to heat |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul chauffait la soupe dans une casserole.
Back then, Paul used to heat the soup in a saucepan.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chaufferai | I will heat | |
| tu | chaufferas | you will heat | |
| il / elle / on | chauffera | he / she / it will heaton: we will heat / one will heat | |
| nous | chaufferons | we will heat | |
| vous | chaufferez | you will heat | |
| ils / elles | chaufferont | they will heat |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul chauffera la soupe dans une casserole.
Later, Paul will heat the soup in a saucepan.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chaufferais | I would heat | |
| tu | chaufferais | you would heat | |
| il / elle / on | chaufferait | he / she / it would heaton: we would heat / one would heat | |
| nous | chaufferions | we would heat | |
| vous | chaufferiez | you would heat | |
| ils / elles | chaufferaient | they would heat |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul chaufferait la soupe dans une casserole.
Paul would heat the soup in a saucepan.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chauffe | (that) I heat | |
| tu | chauffes | (that) you heat | |
| il / elle / on | chauffe | (that) he / she / it heatson: (that) we heat / one heats | |
| nous | chauffions | (that) we heat | |
| vous | chauffiez | (that) you heat | |
| ils / elles | chauffent | (that) they heat |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul chauffe la soupe dans une casserole.
It is possible that Paul heats the soup in a saucepan.
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 heat, warm, warm up
- to tease, entice sexually; to arouse
- to drive (a vehicle)
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