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 have dinner.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dîne | I have dinner | |
| tu | dînes | you have dinner | |
| il / elle / on | dîne | he / she / it has dinneron: we have dinner / one has dinner | |
| nous | dînons | we have dinner | |
| vous | dînez | you have dinner | |
| ils / elles | dînent | they have dinner |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul dîne avec sa famille.
Paul has dinner with his family.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai dîné | I had dinner | |
| tu | as dîné | you had dinner | |
| il / elle / on | a dîné | he / she / it had dinneron: we had dinner / one had dinner | |
| nous | avons dîné | we had dinner | |
| vous | avez dîné | you had dinner | |
| ils / elles | ont dîné | they had dinner |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a dîné avec sa famille.
Yesterday, Paul had dinner with his family.
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’ | dînais | I used to have dinner | |
| tu | dînais | you used to have dinner | |
| il / elle / on | dînait | he / she / it used to have dinneron: we used to have dinner / one used to have dinner | |
| nous | dînions | we used to have dinner | |
| vous | dîniez | you used to have dinner | |
| ils / elles | dînaient | they used to have dinner |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul dînait avec sa famille.
Back then, Paul used to have dinner with his family.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dînerai | I will have dinner | |
| tu | dîneras | you will have dinner | |
| il / elle / on | dînera | he / she / it will have dinneron: we will have dinner / one will have dinner | |
| nous | dînerons | we will have dinner | |
| vous | dînerez | you will have dinner | |
| ils / elles | dîneront | they will have dinner |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul dînera avec sa famille.
Later, Paul will have dinner with his family.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dînerais | I would have dinner | |
| tu | dînerais | you would have dinner | |
| il / elle / on | dînerait | he / she / it would have dinneron: we would have dinner / one would have dinner | |
| nous | dînerions | we would have dinner | |
| vous | dîneriez | you would have dinner | |
| ils / elles | dîneraient | they would have dinner |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul dînerait avec sa famille.
Paul would have dinner with his family.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dîne | (that) I have dinner | |
| tu | dînes | (that) you have dinner | |
| il / elle / on | dîne | (that) he / she / it has dinneron: (that) we have dinner / one has dinner | |
| nous | dînions | (that) we have dinner | |
| vous | dîniez | (that) you have dinner | |
| ils / elles | dînent | (that) they have dinner |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul dîne avec sa famille.
It is possible that Paul has dinner with his family.
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 dine
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