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 drill.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | perce | I drill | |
| tu | perces | you drill | |
| il / elle / on | perce | he / she / it drillson: we drill / one drills | |
| nous | perçons | we drill | |
| vous | percez | you drill | |
| ils / elles | percent | they drill |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul perce un trou dans la planche.
Paul drills a hole in the plank.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai percé | I drilled | |
| tu | as percé | you drilled | |
| il / elle / on | a percé | he / she / it drilledon: we drilled / one drilled | |
| nous | avons percé | we drilled | |
| vous | avez percé | you drilled | |
| ils / elles | ont percé | they drilled |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a percé un trou dans la planche.
Yesterday, Paul drilled a hole in the plank.
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’ | perçais | I used to drill | |
| tu | perçais | you used to drill | |
| il / elle / on | perçait | he / she / it used to drillon: we used to drill / one used to drill | |
| nous | percions | we used to drill | |
| vous | perciez | you used to drill | |
| ils / elles | perçaient | they used to drill |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul perçait un trou dans la planche.
Back then, Paul used to drill a hole in the plank.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | percerai | I will drill | |
| tu | perceras | you will drill | |
| il / elle / on | percera | he / she / it will drillon: we will drill / one will drill | |
| nous | percerons | we will drill | |
| vous | percerez | you will drill | |
| ils / elles | perceront | they will drill |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul percera un trou dans la planche.
Later, Paul will drill a hole in the plank.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | percerais | I would drill | |
| tu | percerais | you would drill | |
| il / elle / on | percerait | he / she / it would drillon: we would drill / one would drill | |
| nous | percerions | we would drill | |
| vous | perceriez | you would drill | |
| ils / elles | perceraient | they would drill |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul percerait un trou dans la planche.
Paul would drill a hole in the plank.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | perce | (that) I drill | |
| tu | perces | (that) you drill | |
| il / elle / on | perce | (that) he / she / it drillson: (that) we drill / one drills | |
| nous | percions | (that) we drill | |
| vous | perciez | (that) you drill | |
| ils / elles | percent | (that) they drill |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul perce un trou dans la planche.
It is possible that Paul drills a hole in the plank.
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 pierce
- to make it, to have one's breakthrough
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