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 go down.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | descends | I go down | |
| tu | descends | you go down | |
| il / elle / on | descend | he / she / it goes downon: we go down / one goes down | |
| nous | descendons | we go down | |
| vous | descendez | you go down | |
| ils / elles | descendent | they go down |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul descend au rez-de-chaussée.
Paul goes down to the ground floor.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | suis descendu / suis descendue | I went down | |
| tu | es descendu / es descendue | you went down | |
| il / elle / on | est descendu / est descendue | he / she / it went downon: we went down / one went down | |
| nous | sommes descendus / sommes descendues | we went down | |
| vous | êtes descendu / êtes descendue / êtes descendus / êtes descendues | you went down | |
| ils / elles | sont descendus / sont descendues | they went down |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul est descendu au rez-de-chaussée.
Yesterday, Paul went down to the ground floor.
The passé composé shown is the intransitive motion use with être. With a direct object, this verb can use avoir; check the meaning in context. With être, the participle agrees with the subject: feminine -e, plural -s. The table gives masculine and feminine alternatives; vous may be singular or plural. With on meaning we, plural agreement is also possible.
Back to tense navigation ↑Imperfect Imparfait
Past habits, descriptions, and actions in progress.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | descendais | I used to go down | |
| tu | descendais | you used to go down | |
| il / elle / on | descendait | he / she / it used to go downon: we used to go down / one used to go down | |
| nous | descendions | we used to go down | |
| vous | descendiez | you used to go down | |
| ils / elles | descendaient | they used to go down |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul descendait au rez-de-chaussée.
Back then, Paul used to go down to the ground floor.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | descendrai | I will go down | |
| tu | descendras | you will go down | |
| il / elle / on | descendra | he / she / it will go downon: we will go down / one will go down | |
| nous | descendrons | we will go down | |
| vous | descendrez | you will go down | |
| ils / elles | descendront | they will go down |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul descendra au rez-de-chaussée.
Later, Paul will go down to the ground floor.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | descendrais | I would go down | |
| tu | descendrais | you would go down | |
| il / elle / on | descendrait | he / she / it would go downon: we would go down / one would go down | |
| nous | descendrions | we would go down | |
| vous | descendriez | you would go down | |
| ils / elles | descendraient | they would go down |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul descendrait au rez-de-chaussée.
Paul would go down to the ground floor.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | descende | (that) I go down | |
| tu | descendes | (that) you go down | |
| il / elle / on | descende | (that) he / she / it goes downon: (that) we go down / one goes down | |
| nous | descendions | (that) we go down | |
| vous | descendiez | (that) you go down | |
| ils / elles | descendent | (that) they go down |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul descende au rez-de-chaussée.
It is possible that Paul goes down to the ground floor.
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 go down
- to descend
- to put down; disparage
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