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 keep.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | garde | I keep | |
| tu | gardes | you keep | |
| il / elle / on | garde | he / she / it keepson: we keep / one keeps | |
| nous | gardons | we keep | |
| vous | gardez | you keep | |
| ils / elles | gardent | they keep |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul garde les billets dans sa poche.
Paul keeps the tickets in his pocket.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai gardé | I kept | |
| tu | as gardé | you kept | |
| il / elle / on | a gardé | he / she / it kepton: we kept / one kept | |
| nous | avons gardé | we kept | |
| vous | avez gardé | you kept | |
| ils / elles | ont gardé | they kept |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a gardé les billets dans sa poche.
Yesterday, Paul kept the tickets in his pocket.
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’ | gardais | I used to keep | |
| tu | gardais | you used to keep | |
| il / elle / on | gardait | he / she / it used to keepon: we used to keep / one used to keep | |
| nous | gardions | we used to keep | |
| vous | gardiez | you used to keep | |
| ils / elles | gardaient | they used to keep |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul gardait les billets dans sa poche.
Back then, Paul used to keep the tickets in his pocket.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | garderai | I will keep | |
| tu | garderas | you will keep | |
| il / elle / on | gardera | he / she / it will keepon: we will keep / one will keep | |
| nous | garderons | we will keep | |
| vous | garderez | you will keep | |
| ils / elles | garderont | they will keep |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul gardera les billets dans sa poche.
Later, Paul will keep the tickets in his pocket.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | garderais | I would keep | |
| tu | garderais | you would keep | |
| il / elle / on | garderait | he / she / it would keepon: we would keep / one would keep | |
| nous | garderions | we would keep | |
| vous | garderiez | you would keep | |
| ils / elles | garderaient | they would keep |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul garderait les billets dans sa poche.
Paul would keep the tickets in his pocket.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | garde | (that) I keep | |
| tu | gardes | (that) you keep | |
| il / elle / on | garde | (that) he / she / it keepson: (that) we keep / one keeps | |
| nous | gardions | (that) we keep | |
| vous | gardiez | (that) you keep | |
| ils / elles | gardent | (that) they keep |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul garde les billets dans sa poche.
It is possible that Paul keeps the tickets in his pocket.
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 keep; to retain; to store; to save
- to guard
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