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 burn.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | crame | I burn | |
| tu | crames | you burn | |
| il / elle / on | crame | he / she / it burnson: we burn / one burns | |
| nous | cramons | we burn | |
| vous | cramez | you burn | |
| ils / elles | crament | they burn |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul crame le pain dans le grille-pain.
Paul burns the bread in the toaster.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai cramé | I burned | |
| tu | as cramé | you burned | |
| il / elle / on | a cramé | he / she / it burnedon: we burned / one burned | |
| nous | avons cramé | we burned | |
| vous | avez cramé | you burned | |
| ils / elles | ont cramé | they burned |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a cramé le pain dans le grille-pain.
Yesterday, Paul burned the bread in the toaster.
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’ | cramais | I used to burn | |
| tu | cramais | you used to burn | |
| il / elle / on | cramait | he / she / it used to burnon: we used to burn / one used to burn | |
| nous | cramions | we used to burn | |
| vous | cramiez | you used to burn | |
| ils / elles | cramaient | they used to burn |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul cramait le pain dans le grille-pain.
Back then, Paul used to burn the bread in the toaster.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cramerai | I will burn | |
| tu | crameras | you will burn | |
| il / elle / on | cramera | he / she / it will burnon: we will burn / one will burn | |
| nous | cramerons | we will burn | |
| vous | cramerez | you will burn | |
| ils / elles | crameront | they will burn |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul cramera le pain dans le grille-pain.
Later, Paul will burn the bread in the toaster.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | cramerais | I would burn | |
| tu | cramerais | you would burn | |
| il / elle / on | cramerait | he / she / it would burnon: we would burn / one would burn | |
| nous | cramerions | we would burn | |
| vous | crameriez | you would burn | |
| ils / elles | crameraient | they would burn |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul cramerait le pain dans le grille-pain.
Paul would burn the bread in the toaster.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | crame | (that) I burn | |
| tu | crames | (that) you burn | |
| il / elle / on | crame | (that) he / she / it burnson: (that) we burn / one burns | |
| nous | cramions | (that) we burn | |
| vous | cramiez | (that) you burn | |
| ils / elles | crament | (that) they burn |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul crame le pain dans le grille-pain.
It is possible that Paul burns the bread in the toaster.
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.”
Cramer is informal for burn.
Meaning & usage
- to burn
- to smoke (a cigarette)
- to have one's identity found out or discovered
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