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 play.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dispute | I play | |
| tu | disputes | you play | |
| il / elle / on | dispute | he / she / it playson: we play / one plays | |
| nous | disputons | we play | |
| vous | disputez | you play | |
| ils / elles | disputent | they play |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul dispute un match de tennis contre son ami.
Paul plays a tennis match against his friend.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai disputé | I played | |
| tu | as disputé | you played | |
| il / elle / on | a disputé | he / she / it playedon: we played / one played | |
| nous | avons disputé | we played | |
| vous | avez disputé | you played | |
| ils / elles | ont disputé | they played |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a disputé un match de tennis contre son ami.
Yesterday, Paul played a tennis match against his friend.
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’ | disputais | I used to play | |
| tu | disputais | you used to play | |
| il / elle / on | disputait | he / she / it used to playon: we used to play / one used to play | |
| nous | disputions | we used to play | |
| vous | disputiez | you used to play | |
| ils / elles | disputaient | they used to play |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul disputait un match de tennis contre son ami.
Back then, Paul used to play a tennis match against his friend.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | disputerai | I will play | |
| tu | disputeras | you will play | |
| il / elle / on | disputera | he / she / it will playon: we will play / one will play | |
| nous | disputerons | we will play | |
| vous | disputerez | you will play | |
| ils / elles | disputeront | they will play |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul disputera un match de tennis contre son ami.
Later, Paul will play a tennis match against his friend.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | disputerais | I would play | |
| tu | disputerais | you would play | |
| il / elle / on | disputerait | he / she / it would playon: we would play / one would play | |
| nous | disputerions | we would play | |
| vous | disputeriez | you would play | |
| ils / elles | disputeraient | they would play |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul disputerait un match de tennis contre son ami.
Paul would play a tennis match against his friend.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | dispute | (that) I play | |
| tu | disputes | (that) you play | |
| il / elle / on | dispute | (that) he / she / it playson: (that) we play / one plays | |
| nous | disputions | (that) we play | |
| vous | disputiez | (that) you play | |
| ils / elles | disputent | (that) they play |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul dispute un match de tennis contre son ami.
It is possible that Paul plays a tennis match against his friend.
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 take part in
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