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 guide.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | guide | I guide | |
| tu | guides | you guide | |
| il / elle / on | guide | he / she / it guideson: we guide / one guides | |
| nous | guidons | we guide | |
| vous | guidez | you guide | |
| ils / elles | guident | they guide |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul guide les visiteurs dans le musée.
Paul guides visitors through the museum.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai guidé | I guided | |
| tu | as guidé | you guided | |
| il / elle / on | a guidé | he / she / it guidedon: we guided / one guided | |
| nous | avons guidé | we guided | |
| vous | avez guidé | you guided | |
| ils / elles | ont guidé | they guided |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a guidé les visiteurs dans le musée.
Yesterday, Paul guided visitors through the museum.
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’ | guidais | I used to guide | |
| tu | guidais | you used to guide | |
| il / elle / on | guidait | he / she / it used to guideon: we used to guide / one used to guide | |
| nous | guidions | we used to guide | |
| vous | guidiez | you used to guide | |
| ils / elles | guidaient | they used to guide |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul guidait les visiteurs dans le musée.
Back then, Paul used to guide visitors through the museum.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | guiderai | I will guide | |
| tu | guideras | you will guide | |
| il / elle / on | guidera | he / she / it will guideon: we will guide / one will guide | |
| nous | guiderons | we will guide | |
| vous | guiderez | you will guide | |
| ils / elles | guideront | they will guide |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul guidera les visiteurs dans le musée.
Later, Paul will guide visitors through the museum.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | guiderais | I would guide | |
| tu | guiderais | you would guide | |
| il / elle / on | guiderait | he / she / it would guideon: we would guide / one would guide | |
| nous | guiderions | we would guide | |
| vous | guideriez | you would guide | |
| ils / elles | guideraient | they would guide |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul guiderait les visiteurs dans le musée.
Paul would guide visitors through the museum.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | guide | (that) I guide | |
| tu | guides | (that) you guide | |
| il / elle / on | guide | (that) he / she / it guideson: (that) we guide / one guides | |
| nous | guidions | (that) we guide | |
| vous | guidiez | (that) you guide | |
| ils / elles | guident | (that) they guide |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul guide les visiteurs dans le musée.
It is possible that Paul guides visitors through the museum.
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 guide
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