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 compensate for.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pallie | I compensate for | |
| tu | pallies | you compensate for | |
| il / elle / on | pallie | he / she / it compensates foron: we compensate for / one compensates for | |
| nous | pallions | we compensate for | |
| vous | palliez | you compensate for | |
| ils / elles | pallient | they compensate for |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul pallie le manque de personnel.
Paul compensates for the shortage of staff.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai pallié | I compensated for | |
| tu | as pallié | you compensated for | |
| il / elle / on | a pallié | he / she / it compensated foron: we compensated for / one compensated for | |
| nous | avons pallié | we compensated for | |
| vous | avez pallié | you compensated for | |
| ils / elles | ont pallié | they compensated for |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a pallié le manque de personnel.
Yesterday, Paul compensated for the shortage of staff.
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’ | palliais | I used to compensate for | |
| tu | palliais | you used to compensate for | |
| il / elle / on | palliait | he / she / it used to compensate foron: we used to compensate for / one used to compensate for | |
| nous | palliions | we used to compensate for | |
| vous | palliiez | you used to compensate for | |
| ils / elles | palliaient | they used to compensate for |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul palliait le manque de personnel.
Back then, Paul used to compensate for the shortage of staff.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pallierai | I will compensate for | |
| tu | pallieras | you will compensate for | |
| il / elle / on | palliera | he / she / it will compensate foron: we will compensate for / one will compensate for | |
| nous | pallierons | we will compensate for | |
| vous | pallierez | you will compensate for | |
| ils / elles | pallieront | they will compensate for |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul palliera le manque de personnel.
Later, Paul will compensate for the shortage of staff.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pallierais | I would compensate for | |
| tu | pallierais | you would compensate for | |
| il / elle / on | pallierait | he / she / it would compensate foron: we would compensate for / one would compensate for | |
| nous | pallierions | we would compensate for | |
| vous | pallieriez | you would compensate for | |
| ils / elles | pallieraient | they would compensate for |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul pallierait le manque de personnel.
Paul would compensate for the shortage of staff.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pallie | (that) I compensate for | |
| tu | pallies | (that) you compensate for | |
| il / elle / on | pallie | (that) he / she / it compensates foron: (that) we compensate for / one compensates for | |
| nous | palliions | (that) we compensate for | |
| vous | palliiez | (that) you compensate for | |
| ils / elles | pallient | (that) they compensate for |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul pallie le manque de personnel.
It is possible that Paul compensates for the shortage of staff.
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 alleviate; to compensate for
- to conceal
- to palliate (to relieve the symptoms of)
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