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 discourage.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | décourage | I discourage | |
| tu | décourages | you discourage | |
| il / elle / on | décourage | he / she / it discourageson: we discourage / one discourages | |
| nous | décourageons | we discourage | |
| vous | découragez | you discourage | |
| ils / elles | découragent | they discourage |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Le mauvais temps décourage les promeneurs.
The bad weather discourages the walkers.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai découragé | I discouraged | |
| tu | as découragé | you discouraged | |
| il / elle / on | a découragé | he / she / it discouragedon: we discouraged / one discouraged | |
| nous | avons découragé | we discouraged | |
| vous | avez découragé | you discouraged | |
| ils / elles | ont découragé | they discouraged |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, le mauvais temps a découragé les promeneurs.
Yesterday, the bad weather discouraged the walkers.
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’ | décourageais | I used to discourage | |
| tu | décourageais | you used to discourage | |
| il / elle / on | décourageait | he / she / it used to discourageon: we used to discourage / one used to discourage | |
| nous | découragions | we used to discourage | |
| vous | découragiez | you used to discourage | |
| ils / elles | décourageaient | they used to discourage |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, le mauvais temps décourageait les promeneurs.
Back then, the bad weather used to discourage the walkers.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | découragerai | I will discourage | |
| tu | décourageras | you will discourage | |
| il / elle / on | découragera | he / she / it will discourageon: we will discourage / one will discourage | |
| nous | découragerons | we will discourage | |
| vous | découragerez | you will discourage | |
| ils / elles | décourageront | they will discourage |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, le mauvais temps découragera les promeneurs.
Later, the bad weather will discourage the walkers.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | découragerais | I would discourage | |
| tu | découragerais | you would discourage | |
| il / elle / on | découragerait | he / she / it would discourageon: we would discourage / one would discourage | |
| nous | découragerions | we would discourage | |
| vous | décourageriez | you would discourage | |
| ils / elles | décourageraient | they would discourage |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Le mauvais temps découragerait les promeneurs.
The bad weather would discourage the walkers.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | décourage | (that) I discourage | |
| tu | décourages | (that) you discourage | |
| il / elle / on | décourage | (that) he / she / it discourageson: (that) we discourage / one discourages | |
| nous | découragions | (that) we discourage | |
| vous | découragiez | (that) you discourage | |
| ils / elles | découragent | (that) they discourage |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que le mauvais temps décourage les promeneurs.
It is possible that the bad weather discourages the walkers.
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 discourage
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