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 guess.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | devine | I guess | |
| tu | devines | you guess | |
| il / elle / on | devine | he / she / it guesseson: we guess / one guesses | |
| nous | devinons | we guess | |
| vous | devinez | you guess | |
| ils / elles | devinent | they guess |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul devine la réponse à la devinette.
Paul guesses the answer to the riddle.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai deviné | I guessed | |
| tu | as deviné | you guessed | |
| il / elle / on | a deviné | he / she / it guessedon: we guessed / one guessed | |
| nous | avons deviné | we guessed | |
| vous | avez deviné | you guessed | |
| ils / elles | ont deviné | they guessed |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a deviné la réponse à la devinette.
Yesterday, Paul guessed the answer to the riddle.
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’ | devinais | I used to guess | |
| tu | devinais | you used to guess | |
| il / elle / on | devinait | he / she / it used to guesson: we used to guess / one used to guess | |
| nous | devinions | we used to guess | |
| vous | deviniez | you used to guess | |
| ils / elles | devinaient | they used to guess |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul devinait la réponse à la devinette.
Back then, Paul used to guess the answer to the riddle.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | devinerai | I will guess | |
| tu | devineras | you will guess | |
| il / elle / on | devinera | he / she / it will guesson: we will guess / one will guess | |
| nous | devinerons | we will guess | |
| vous | devinerez | you will guess | |
| ils / elles | devineront | they will guess |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul devinera la réponse à la devinette.
Later, Paul will guess the answer to the riddle.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | devinerais | I would guess | |
| tu | devinerais | you would guess | |
| il / elle / on | devinerait | he / she / it would guesson: we would guess / one would guess | |
| nous | devinerions | we would guess | |
| vous | devineriez | you would guess | |
| ils / elles | devineraient | they would guess |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul devinerait la réponse à la devinette.
Paul would guess the answer to the riddle.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | devine | (that) I guess | |
| tu | devines | (that) you guess | |
| il / elle / on | devine | (that) he / she / it guesseson: (that) we guess / one guesses | |
| nous | devinions | (that) we guess | |
| vous | deviniez | (that) you guess | |
| ils / elles | devinent | (that) they guess |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul devine la réponse à la devinette.
It is possible that Paul guesses the answer to the riddle.
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 guess; to work out, figure out
- to sense, perceive
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