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 rain.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | pleut | it rains | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Il pleut sur le village.
It rains over the village.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | a plu | it rained | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, il a plu sur le village.
Yesterday, it rained over the village.
The passé composé uses avoir. The table shows the unmarked participle; agreement with a preceding direct object is outside this reference. A dash marks a person absent from this source paradigm and is excluded from practice. Impersonal uses take il. The weather meaning shown is impersonal and uses il. Figurative plural uses such as les coups pleuvent are outside this table.
Back to tense navigation ↑Imperfect Imparfait
Past habits, descriptions, and actions in progress.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | pleuvait | it used to rain | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, il pleuvait sur le village.
Back then, it used to rain over the village.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | pleuvra | it will rain | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, il pleuvra sur le village.
Later, it will rain over the village.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | pleuvrait | it would rain | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Il pleuvrait sur le village.
It would rain over the village.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | — | Not used | |
| tu | — | Not used | |
| il (impersonal) | pleuve | (that) it rains | |
| nous | — | Not used | |
| vous | — | Not used | |
| ils / elles | — | Not used |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible qu'il pleuve sur le village.
It is possible that it will rain over the village.
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.”
Weather pleuvoir is impersonal: only il is used in these examples.
Meaning & usage
- to rain
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