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 advise.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | conseille | I advise | |
| tu | conseilles | you advise | |
| il / elle / on | conseille | he / she / it adviseson: we advise / one advises | |
| nous | conseillons | we advise | |
| vous | conseillez | you advise | |
| ils / elles | conseillent | they advise |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul conseille à son ami de prendre le train.
Paul advises his friend to take the train.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai conseillé | I advised | |
| tu | as conseillé | you advised | |
| il / elle / on | a conseillé | he / she / it advisedon: we advised / one advised | |
| nous | avons conseillé | we advised | |
| vous | avez conseillé | you advised | |
| ils / elles | ont conseillé | they advised |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a conseillé à son ami de prendre le train.
Yesterday, Paul advised his friend to take the train.
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’ | conseillais | I used to advise | |
| tu | conseillais | you used to advise | |
| il / elle / on | conseillait | he / she / it used to adviseon: we used to advise / one used to advise | |
| nous | conseillions | we used to advise | |
| vous | conseilliez | you used to advise | |
| ils / elles | conseillaient | they used to advise |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul conseillait à son ami de prendre le train.
Back then, Paul used to advise his friend to take the train.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | conseillerai | I will advise | |
| tu | conseilleras | you will advise | |
| il / elle / on | conseillera | he / she / it will adviseon: we will advise / one will advise | |
| nous | conseillerons | we will advise | |
| vous | conseillerez | you will advise | |
| ils / elles | conseilleront | they will advise |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul conseillera à son ami de prendre le train.
Later, Paul will advise his friend to take the train.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | conseillerais | I would advise | |
| tu | conseillerais | you would advise | |
| il / elle / on | conseillerait | he / she / it would adviseon: we would advise / one would advise | |
| nous | conseillerions | we would advise | |
| vous | conseilleriez | you would advise | |
| ils / elles | conseilleraient | they would advise |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul conseillerait à son ami de prendre le train.
Paul would advise his friend to take the train.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | conseille | (that) I advise | |
| tu | conseilles | (that) you advise | |
| il / elle / on | conseille | (that) he / she / it adviseson: (that) we advise / one advises | |
| nous | conseillions | (that) we advise | |
| vous | conseilliez | (that) you advise | |
| ils / elles | conseillent | (that) they advise |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul conseille à son ami de prendre le train.
It is possible that Paul advises his friend to take the train.
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 advise
- to counsel
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