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 maintain.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | maintiens | I maintain | |
| tu | maintiens | you maintain | |
| il / elle / on | maintient | he / she / it maintainson: we maintain / one maintains | |
| nous | maintenons | we maintain | |
| vous | maintenez | you maintain | |
| ils / elles | maintiennent | they maintain |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul maintient une distance de sécurité.
Paul maintains a safe distance.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai maintenu | I maintained | |
| tu | as maintenu | you maintained | |
| il / elle / on | a maintenu | he / she / it maintainedon: we maintained / one maintained | |
| nous | avons maintenu | we maintained | |
| vous | avez maintenu | you maintained | |
| ils / elles | ont maintenu | they maintained |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a maintenu une distance de sécurité.
Yesterday, Paul maintained a safe distance.
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’ | maintenais | I used to maintain | |
| tu | maintenais | you used to maintain | |
| il / elle / on | maintenait | he / she / it used to maintainon: we used to maintain / one used to maintain | |
| nous | maintenions | we used to maintain | |
| vous | mainteniez | you used to maintain | |
| ils / elles | maintenaient | they used to maintain |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul maintenait une distance de sécurité.
Back then, Paul used to maintain a safe distance.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | maintiendrai | I will maintain | |
| tu | maintiendras | you will maintain | |
| il / elle / on | maintiendra | he / she / it will maintainon: we will maintain / one will maintain | |
| nous | maintiendrons | we will maintain | |
| vous | maintiendrez | you will maintain | |
| ils / elles | maintiendront | they will maintain |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul maintiendra une distance de sécurité.
Later, Paul will maintain a safe distance.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | maintiendrais | I would maintain | |
| tu | maintiendrais | you would maintain | |
| il / elle / on | maintiendrait | he / she / it would maintainon: we would maintain / one would maintain | |
| nous | maintiendrions | we would maintain | |
| vous | maintiendriez | you would maintain | |
| ils / elles | maintiendraient | they would maintain |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul maintiendrait une distance de sécurité.
Paul would maintain a safe distance.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | maintienne | (that) I maintain | |
| tu | maintiennes | (that) you maintain | |
| il / elle / on | maintienne | (that) he / she / it maintainson: (that) we maintain / one maintains | |
| nous | maintenions | (that) we maintain | |
| vous | mainteniez | (that) you maintain | |
| ils / elles | maintiennent | (that) they maintain |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul maintienne une distance de sécurité.
It is possible that Paul maintains a safe distance.
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 maintain
- to stick to
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