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 insult.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | insulte | I insult | |
| tu | insultes | you insult | |
| il / elle / on | insulte | he / she / it insultson: we insult / one insults | |
| nous | insultons | we insult | |
| vous | insultez | you insult | |
| ils / elles | insultent | they insult |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Le personnage insulte son rival dans la pièce.
The character insults his rival in the play.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai insulté | I insulted | |
| tu | as insulté | you insulted | |
| il / elle / on | a insulté | he / she / it insultedon: we insulted / one insulted | |
| nous | avons insulté | we insulted | |
| vous | avez insulté | you insulted | |
| ils / elles | ont insulté | they insulted |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, le personnage a insulté son rival dans la pièce.
Yesterday, the character insulted his rival in the play.
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’ | insultais | I used to insult | |
| tu | insultais | you used to insult | |
| il / elle / on | insultait | he / she / it used to insulton: we used to insult / one used to insult | |
| nous | insultions | we used to insult | |
| vous | insultiez | you used to insult | |
| ils / elles | insultaient | they used to insult |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, le personnage insultait son rival dans la pièce.
Back then, the character used to insult his rival in the play.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | insulterai | I will insult | |
| tu | insulteras | you will insult | |
| il / elle / on | insultera | he / she / it will insulton: we will insult / one will insult | |
| nous | insulterons | we will insult | |
| vous | insulterez | you will insult | |
| ils / elles | insulteront | they will insult |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, le personnage insultera son rival dans la pièce.
Later, the character will insult his rival in the play.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | insulterais | I would insult | |
| tu | insulterais | you would insult | |
| il / elle / on | insulterait | he / she / it would insulton: we would insult / one would insult | |
| nous | insulterions | we would insult | |
| vous | insulteriez | you would insult | |
| ils / elles | insulteraient | they would insult |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Le personnage insulterait son rival dans la pièce.
The character would insult his rival in the play.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | insulte | (that) I insult | |
| tu | insultes | (that) you insult | |
| il / elle / on | insulte | (that) he / she / it insultson: (that) we insult / one insults | |
| nous | insultions | (that) we insult | |
| vous | insultiez | (that) you insult | |
| ils / elles | insultent | (that) they insult |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que le personnage insulte son rival dans la pièce.
It is possible that the character insults his rival in the play.
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 insult
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