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 place.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | place | I place | |
| tu | places | you place | |
| il / elle / on | place | he / she / it placeson: we place / one places | |
| nous | plaçons | we place | |
| vous | placez | you place | |
| ils / elles | placent | they place |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul place la chaise près de la fenêtre.
Paul places the chair near the window.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai placé | I placed | |
| tu | as placé | you placed | |
| il / elle / on | a placé | he / she / it placedon: we placed / one placed | |
| nous | avons placé | we placed | |
| vous | avez placé | you placed | |
| ils / elles | ont placé | they placed |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a placé la chaise près de la fenêtre.
Yesterday, Paul placed the chair near the window.
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’ | plaçais | I used to place | |
| tu | plaçais | you used to place | |
| il / elle / on | plaçait | he / she / it used to placeon: we used to place / one used to place | |
| nous | placions | we used to place | |
| vous | placiez | you used to place | |
| ils / elles | plaçaient | they used to place |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul plaçait la chaise près de la fenêtre.
Back then, Paul used to place the chair near the window.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | placerai | I will place | |
| tu | placeras | you will place | |
| il / elle / on | placera | he / she / it will placeon: we will place / one will place | |
| nous | placerons | we will place | |
| vous | placerez | you will place | |
| ils / elles | placeront | they will place |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul placera la chaise près de la fenêtre.
Later, Paul will place the chair near the window.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | placerais | I would place | |
| tu | placerais | you would place | |
| il / elle / on | placerait | he / she / it would placeon: we would place / one would place | |
| nous | placerions | we would place | |
| vous | placeriez | you would place | |
| ils / elles | placeraient | they would place |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul placerait la chaise près de la fenêtre.
Paul would place the chair near the window.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | place | (that) I place | |
| tu | places | (that) you place | |
| il / elle / on | place | (that) he / she / it placeson: (that) we place / one places | |
| nous | placions | (that) we place | |
| vous | placiez | (that) you place | |
| ils / elles | placent | (that) they place |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul place la chaise près de la fenêtre.
It is possible that Paul places the chair near the window.
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 place (to put in a specific location)
- to seat (to put an object into a place where it will rest)
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