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 travel through.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | parcours | I travel through | |
| tu | parcours | you travel through | |
| il / elle / on | parcourt | he / she / it travels throughon: we travel through / one travels through | |
| nous | parcourons | we travel through | |
| vous | parcourez | you travel through | |
| ils / elles | parcourent | they travel through |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul parcourt la région à vélo.
Paul travels through the region by bicycle.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai parcouru | I travelled through | |
| tu | as parcouru | you travelled through | |
| il / elle / on | a parcouru | he / she / it travelled throughon: we travelled through / one travelled through | |
| nous | avons parcouru | we travelled through | |
| vous | avez parcouru | you travelled through | |
| ils / elles | ont parcouru | they travelled through |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a parcouru la région à vélo.
Yesterday, Paul travelled through the region by bicycle.
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’ | parcourais | I used to travel through | |
| tu | parcourais | you used to travel through | |
| il / elle / on | parcourait | he / she / it used to travel throughon: we used to travel through / one used to travel through | |
| nous | parcourions | we used to travel through | |
| vous | parcouriez | you used to travel through | |
| ils / elles | parcouraient | they used to travel through |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul parcourait la région à vélo.
Back then, Paul used to travel through the region by bicycle.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | parcourrai | I will travel through | |
| tu | parcourras | you will travel through | |
| il / elle / on | parcourra | he / she / it will travel throughon: we will travel through / one will travel through | |
| nous | parcourrons | we will travel through | |
| vous | parcourrez | you will travel through | |
| ils / elles | parcourront | they will travel through |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul parcourra la région à vélo.
Later, Paul will travel through the region by bicycle.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | parcourrais | I would travel through | |
| tu | parcourrais | you would travel through | |
| il / elle / on | parcourrait | he / she / it would travel throughon: we would travel through / one would travel through | |
| nous | parcourrions | we would travel through | |
| vous | parcourriez | you would travel through | |
| ils / elles | parcourraient | they would travel through |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul parcourrait la région à vélo.
Paul would travel through the region by bicycle.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | parcoure | (that) I travel through | |
| tu | parcoures | (that) you travel through | |
| il / elle / on | parcoure | (that) he / she / it travels throughon: (that) we travel through / one travels through | |
| nous | parcourions | (that) we travel through | |
| vous | parcouriez | (that) you travel through | |
| ils / elles | parcourent | (that) they travel through |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul parcoure la région à vélo.
It is possible that Paul travels through the region by bicycle.
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 go through, to pass through
- to read through, to skim
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