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 complain.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chiale | I complain | |
| tu | chiales | you complain | |
| il / elle / on | chiale | he / she / it complainson: we complain / one complains | |
| nous | chialons | we complain | |
| vous | chialez | you complain | |
| ils / elles | chialent | they complain |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul chiale à propos du prix du billet.
Paul complains about the ticket price.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai chialé | I complained | |
| tu | as chialé | you complained | |
| il / elle / on | a chialé | he / she / it complainedon: we complained / one complained | |
| nous | avons chialé | we complained | |
| vous | avez chialé | you complained | |
| ils / elles | ont chialé | they complained |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a chialé à propos du prix du billet.
Yesterday, Paul complained about the ticket price.
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’ | chialais | I used to complain | |
| tu | chialais | you used to complain | |
| il / elle / on | chialait | he / she / it used to complainon: we used to complain / one used to complain | |
| nous | chialions | we used to complain | |
| vous | chialiez | you used to complain | |
| ils / elles | chialaient | they used to complain |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul chialait à propos du prix du billet.
Back then, Paul used to complain about the ticket price.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chialerai | I will complain | |
| tu | chialeras | you will complain | |
| il / elle / on | chialera | he / she / it will complainon: we will complain / one will complain | |
| nous | chialerons | we will complain | |
| vous | chialerez | you will complain | |
| ils / elles | chialeront | they will complain |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul chialera à propos du prix du billet.
Later, Paul will complain about the ticket price.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chialerais | I would complain | |
| tu | chialerais | you would complain | |
| il / elle / on | chialerait | he / she / it would complainon: we would complain / one would complain | |
| nous | chialerions | we would complain | |
| vous | chialeriez | you would complain | |
| ils / elles | chialeraient | they would complain |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul chialerait à propos du prix du billet.
Paul would complain about the ticket price.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | chiale | (that) I complain | |
| tu | chiales | (that) you complain | |
| il / elle / on | chiale | (that) he / she / it complainson: (that) we complain / one complains | |
| nous | chialions | (that) we complain | |
| vous | chialiez | (that) you complain | |
| ils / elles | chialent | (that) they complain |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul chiale à propos du prix du billet.
It is possible that Paul complains about the ticket price.
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.”
Chialer is informal. Here it means complain.
Meaning & usage
- to complain
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