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 encourage.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | incite | I encourage | |
| tu | incites | you encourage | |
| il / elle / on | incite | he / she / it encourageson: we encourage / one encourages | |
| nous | incitons | we encourage | |
| vous | incitez | you encourage | |
| ils / elles | incitent | they encourage |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Ce livre incite Paul à voyager.
This book encourages Paul to travel.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai incité | I encouraged | |
| tu | as incité | you encouraged | |
| il / elle / on | a incité | he / she / it encouragedon: we encouraged / one encouraged | |
| nous | avons incité | we encouraged | |
| vous | avez incité | you encouraged | |
| ils / elles | ont incité | they encouraged |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, ce livre a incité Paul à voyager.
Yesterday, this book encouraged Paul to travel.
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’ | incitais | I used to encourage | |
| tu | incitais | you used to encourage | |
| il / elle / on | incitait | he / she / it used to encourageon: we used to encourage / one used to encourage | |
| nous | incitions | we used to encourage | |
| vous | incitiez | you used to encourage | |
| ils / elles | incitaient | they used to encourage |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, ce livre incitait Paul à voyager.
Back then, this book used to encourage Paul to travel.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | inciterai | I will encourage | |
| tu | inciteras | you will encourage | |
| il / elle / on | incitera | he / she / it will encourageon: we will encourage / one will encourage | |
| nous | inciterons | we will encourage | |
| vous | inciterez | you will encourage | |
| ils / elles | inciteront | they will encourage |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, ce livre incitera Paul à voyager.
Later, this book will encourage Paul to travel.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | inciterais | I would encourage | |
| tu | inciterais | you would encourage | |
| il / elle / on | inciterait | he / she / it would encourageon: we would encourage / one would encourage | |
| nous | inciterions | we would encourage | |
| vous | inciteriez | you would encourage | |
| ils / elles | inciteraient | they would encourage |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Ce livre inciterait Paul à voyager.
This book would encourage Paul to travel.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | incite | (that) I encourage | |
| tu | incites | (that) you encourage | |
| il / elle / on | incite | (that) he / she / it encourageson: (that) we encourage / one encourages | |
| nous | incitions | (that) we encourage | |
| vous | incitiez | (that) you encourage | |
| ils / elles | incitent | (that) they encourage |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que ce livre incite Paul à voyager.
It is possible that this book encourages Paul to travel.
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 urge; to impel
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