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 walk.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | marche | I walk | |
| tu | marches | you walk | |
| il / elle / on | marche | he / she / it walkson: we walk / one walks | |
| nous | marchons | we walk | |
| vous | marchez | you walk | |
| ils / elles | marchent | they walk |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul marche le long de la rivière.
Paul walks along the river.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai marché | I walked | |
| tu | as marché | you walked | |
| il / elle / on | a marché | he / she / it walkedon: we walked / one walked | |
| nous | avons marché | we walked | |
| vous | avez marché | you walked | |
| ils / elles | ont marché | they walked |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a marché le long de la rivière.
Yesterday, Paul walked along the river.
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’ | marchais | I used to walk | |
| tu | marchais | you used to walk | |
| il / elle / on | marchait | he / she / it used to walkon: we used to walk / one used to walk | |
| nous | marchions | we used to walk | |
| vous | marchiez | you used to walk | |
| ils / elles | marchaient | they used to walk |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul marchait le long de la rivière.
Back then, Paul used to walk along the river.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | marcherai | I will walk | |
| tu | marcheras | you will walk | |
| il / elle / on | marchera | he / she / it will walkon: we will walk / one will walk | |
| nous | marcherons | we will walk | |
| vous | marcherez | you will walk | |
| ils / elles | marcheront | they will walk |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul marchera le long de la rivière.
Later, Paul will walk along the river.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | marcherais | I would walk | |
| tu | marcherais | you would walk | |
| il / elle / on | marcherait | he / she / it would walkon: we would walk / one would walk | |
| nous | marcherions | we would walk | |
| vous | marcheriez | you would walk | |
| ils / elles | marcheraient | they would walk |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul marcherait le long de la rivière.
Paul would walk along the river.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | marche | (that) I walk | |
| tu | marches | (that) you walk | |
| il / elle / on | marche | (that) he / she / it walkson: (that) we walk / one walks | |
| nous | marchions | (that) we walk | |
| vous | marchiez | (that) you walk | |
| ils / elles | marchent | (that) they walk |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul marche le long de la rivière.
It is possible that Paul walks along the river.
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 walk
- to travel; to move; to march
- to work, to function
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