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 paint.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | peins | I paint | |
| tu | peins | you paint | |
| il / elle / on | peint | he / she / it paintson: we paint / one paints | |
| nous | peignons | we paint | |
| vous | peignez | you paint | |
| ils / elles | peignent | they paint |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul peint la porte en bleu.
Paul paints the door blue.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai peint | I painted | |
| tu | as peint | you painted | |
| il / elle / on | a peint | he / she / it paintedon: we painted / one painted | |
| nous | avons peint | we painted | |
| vous | avez peint | you painted | |
| ils / elles | ont peint | they painted |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a peint la porte en bleu.
Yesterday, Paul painted the door blue.
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’ | peignais | I used to paint | |
| tu | peignais | you used to paint | |
| il / elle / on | peignait | he / she / it used to painton: we used to paint / one used to paint | |
| nous | peignions | we used to paint | |
| vous | peigniez | you used to paint | |
| ils / elles | peignaient | they used to paint |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul peignait la porte en bleu.
Back then, Paul used to paint the door blue.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | peindrai | I will paint | |
| tu | peindras | you will paint | |
| il / elle / on | peindra | he / she / it will painton: we will paint / one will paint | |
| nous | peindrons | we will paint | |
| vous | peindrez | you will paint | |
| ils / elles | peindront | they will paint |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul peindra la porte en bleu.
Later, Paul will paint the door blue.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | peindrais | I would paint | |
| tu | peindrais | you would paint | |
| il / elle / on | peindrait | he / she / it would painton: we would paint / one would paint | |
| nous | peindrions | we would paint | |
| vous | peindriez | you would paint | |
| ils / elles | peindraient | they would paint |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul peindrait la porte en bleu.
Paul would paint the door blue.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | peigne | (that) I paint | |
| tu | peignes | (that) you paint | |
| il / elle / on | peigne | (that) he / she / it paintson: (that) we paint / one paints | |
| nous | peignions | (that) we paint | |
| vous | peigniez | (that) you paint | |
| ils / elles | peignent | (that) they paint |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul peigne la porte en bleu.
It is possible that Paul paints the door blue.
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 paint
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