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 play.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | joue | I play | |
| tu | joues | you play | |
| il / elle / on | joue | he / she / it playson: we play / one plays | |
| nous | jouons | we play | |
| vous | jouez | you play | |
| ils / elles | jouent | they play |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul joue aux échecs avec son père.
Paul plays chess with his father.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai joué | I played | |
| tu | as joué | you played | |
| il / elle / on | a joué | he / she / it playedon: we played / one played | |
| nous | avons joué | we played | |
| vous | avez joué | you played | |
| ils / elles | ont joué | they played |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a joué aux échecs avec son père.
Yesterday, Paul played chess with his father.
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’ | jouais | I used to play | |
| tu | jouais | you used to play | |
| il / elle / on | jouait | he / she / it used to playon: we used to play / one used to play | |
| nous | jouions | we used to play | |
| vous | jouiez | you used to play | |
| ils / elles | jouaient | they used to play |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul jouait aux échecs avec son père.
Back then, Paul used to play chess with his father.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | jouerai | I will play | |
| tu | joueras | you will play | |
| il / elle / on | jouera | he / she / it will playon: we will play / one will play | |
| nous | jouerons | we will play | |
| vous | jouerez | you will play | |
| ils / elles | joueront | they will play |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul jouera aux échecs avec son père.
Later, Paul will play chess with his father.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | jouerais | I would play | |
| tu | jouerais | you would play | |
| il / elle / on | jouerait | he / she / it would playon: we would play / one would play | |
| nous | jouerions | we would play | |
| vous | joueriez | you would play | |
| ils / elles | joueraient | they would play |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul jouerait aux échecs avec son père.
Paul would play chess with his father.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | joue | (that) I play | |
| tu | joues | (that) you play | |
| il / elle / on | joue | (that) he / she / it playson: (that) we play / one plays | |
| nous | jouions | (that) we play | |
| vous | jouiez | (that) you play | |
| ils / elles | jouent | (that) they play |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul joue aux échecs avec son père.
It is possible that Paul plays chess with his father.
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 play (engage in games or play)
- to play (produce music from a musical instrument)
- to play (a role)
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