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 put.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | mets | I put | |
| tu | mets | you put | |
| il / elle / on | met | he / she / it putson: we put / one puts | |
| nous | mettons | we put | |
| vous | mettez | you put | |
| ils / elles | mettent | they put |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul met son manteau sur une chaise.
Paul puts his coat on a chair.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai mis | I put | |
| tu | as mis | you put | |
| il / elle / on | a mis | he / she / it puton: we put / one put | |
| nous | avons mis | we put | |
| vous | avez mis | you put | |
| ils / elles | ont mis | they put |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a mis son manteau sur une chaise.
Yesterday, Paul put his coat on a chair.
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’ | mettais | I used to put | |
| tu | mettais | you used to put | |
| il / elle / on | mettait | he / she / it used to puton: we used to put / one used to put | |
| nous | mettions | we used to put | |
| vous | mettiez | you used to put | |
| ils / elles | mettaient | they used to put |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul mettait son manteau sur une chaise.
Back then, Paul used to put his coat on a chair.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | mettrai | I will put | |
| tu | mettras | you will put | |
| il / elle / on | mettra | he / she / it will puton: we will put / one will put | |
| nous | mettrons | we will put | |
| vous | mettrez | you will put | |
| ils / elles | mettront | they will put |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul mettra son manteau sur une chaise.
Later, Paul will put his coat on a chair.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | mettrais | I would put | |
| tu | mettrais | you would put | |
| il / elle / on | mettrait | he / she / it would puton: we would put / one would put | |
| nous | mettrions | we would put | |
| vous | mettriez | you would put | |
| ils / elles | mettraient | they would put |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul mettrait son manteau sur une chaise.
Paul would put his coat on a chair.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | mette | (that) I put | |
| tu | mettes | (that) you put | |
| il / elle / on | mette | (that) he / she / it putson: (that) we put / one puts | |
| nous | mettions | (that) we put | |
| vous | mettiez | (that) you put | |
| ils / elles | mettent | (that) they put |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul mette son manteau sur une chaise.
It is possible that Paul puts his coat on a chair.
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 put; to place
- to put on
- to set
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