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 form.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | forme | I form | |
| tu | formes | you form | |
| il / elle / on | forme | he / she / it formson: we form / one forms | |
| nous | formons | we form | |
| vous | formez | you form | |
| ils / elles | forment | they form |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul forme une équipe avec ses voisins.
Paul forms a team with his neighbors.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai formé | I formed | |
| tu | as formé | you formed | |
| il / elle / on | a formé | he / she / it formedon: we formed / one formed | |
| nous | avons formé | we formed | |
| vous | avez formé | you formed | |
| ils / elles | ont formé | they formed |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a formé une équipe avec ses voisins.
Yesterday, Paul formed a team with his neighbors.
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’ | formais | I used to form | |
| tu | formais | you used to form | |
| il / elle / on | formait | he / she / it used to formon: we used to form / one used to form | |
| nous | formions | we used to form | |
| vous | formiez | you used to form | |
| ils / elles | formaient | they used to form |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul formait une équipe avec ses voisins.
Back then, Paul used to form a team with his neighbors.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | formerai | I will form | |
| tu | formeras | you will form | |
| il / elle / on | formera | he / she / it will formon: we will form / one will form | |
| nous | formerons | we will form | |
| vous | formerez | you will form | |
| ils / elles | formeront | they will form |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul formera une équipe avec ses voisins.
Later, Paul will form a team with his neighbors.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | formerais | I would form | |
| tu | formerais | you would form | |
| il / elle / on | formerait | he / she / it would formon: we would form / one would form | |
| nous | formerions | we would form | |
| vous | formeriez | you would form | |
| ils / elles | formeraient | they would form |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul formerait une équipe avec ses voisins.
Paul would form a team with his neighbors.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | forme | (that) I form | |
| tu | formes | (that) you form | |
| il / elle / on | forme | (that) he / she / it formson: (that) we form / one forms | |
| nous | formions | (that) we form | |
| vous | formiez | (that) you form | |
| ils / elles | forment | (that) they form |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul forme une équipe avec ses voisins.
It is possible that Paul forms a team with his neighbors.
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 form (generic sense)
- to shape (to make into a certain shape)
- to train; to educate
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