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 appeal.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | plais | I appeal | |
| tu | plais | you appeal | |
| il / elle / on | plaît / plait | he / she / it appealson: we appeal / one appeals | |
| nous | plaisons | we appeal | |
| vous | plaisez | you appeal | |
| ils / elles | plaisent | they appeal |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Ce livre plaît aux jeunes lecteurs.
This book appeals to young readers.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai plu | I appealed | |
| tu | as plu | you appealed | |
| il / elle / on | a plu | he / she / it appealedon: we appealed / one appealed | |
| nous | avons plu | we appealed | |
| vous | avez plu | you appealed | |
| ils / elles | ont plu | they appealed |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, ce livre a plu aux jeunes lecteurs.
Yesterday, this book appealed to young readers.
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’ | plaisais | I used to appeal | |
| tu | plaisais | you used to appeal | |
| il / elle / on | plaisait | he / she / it used to appealon: we used to appeal / one used to appeal | |
| nous | plaisions | we used to appeal | |
| vous | plaisiez | you used to appeal | |
| ils / elles | plaisaient | they used to appeal |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, ce livre plaisait aux jeunes lecteurs.
Back then, this book used to appeal to young readers.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | plairai | I will appeal | |
| tu | plairas | you will appeal | |
| il / elle / on | plaira | he / she / it will appealon: we will appeal / one will appeal | |
| nous | plairons | we will appeal | |
| vous | plairez | you will appeal | |
| ils / elles | plairont | they will appeal |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, ce livre plaira aux jeunes lecteurs.
Later, this book will appeal to young readers.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | plairais | I would appeal | |
| tu | plairais | you would appeal | |
| il / elle / on | plairait | he / she / it would appealon: we would appeal / one would appeal | |
| nous | plairions | we would appeal | |
| vous | plairiez | you would appeal | |
| ils / elles | plairaient | they would appeal |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Ce livre plairait aux jeunes lecteurs.
This book would appeal to young readers.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | plaise | (that) I appeal | |
| tu | plaises | (that) you appeal | |
| il / elle / on | plaise | (that) he / she / it appealson: (that) we appeal / one appeals | |
| nous | plaisions | (that) we appeal | |
| vous | plaisiez | (that) you appeal | |
| ils / elles | plaisent | (that) they appeal |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que ce livre plaise aux jeunes lecteurs.
It is possible that this book appeals to young readers.
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 please, to appeal to (usually translated into English as like with exchange of subject and object)
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