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 put down.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pose | I put down | |
| tu | poses | you put down | |
| il / elle / on | pose | he / she / it puts downon: we put down / one puts down | |
| nous | posons | we put down | |
| vous | posez | you put down | |
| ils / elles | posent | they put down |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul pose son sac près de la porte.
Paul puts down his bag near the door.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai posé | I put down | |
| tu | as posé | you put down | |
| il / elle / on | a posé | he / she / it put downon: we put down / one put down | |
| nous | avons posé | we put down | |
| vous | avez posé | you put down | |
| ils / elles | ont posé | they put down |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a posé son sac près de la porte.
Yesterday, Paul put down his bag near the door.
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’ | posais | I used to put down | |
| tu | posais | you used to put down | |
| il / elle / on | posait | he / she / it used to put downon: we used to put down / one used to put down | |
| nous | posions | we used to put down | |
| vous | posiez | you used to put down | |
| ils / elles | posaient | they used to put down |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul posait son sac près de la porte.
Back then, Paul used to put down his bag near the door.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | poserai | I will put down | |
| tu | poseras | you will put down | |
| il / elle / on | posera | he / she / it will put downon: we will put down / one will put down | |
| nous | poserons | we will put down | |
| vous | poserez | you will put down | |
| ils / elles | poseront | they will put down |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul posera son sac près de la porte.
Later, Paul will put down his bag near the door.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | poserais | I would put down | |
| tu | poserais | you would put down | |
| il / elle / on | poserait | he / she / it would put downon: we would put down / one would put down | |
| nous | poserions | we would put down | |
| vous | poseriez | you would put down | |
| ils / elles | poseraient | they would put down |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul poserait son sac près de la porte.
Paul would put down his bag near the door.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | pose | (that) I put down | |
| tu | poses | (that) you put down | |
| il / elle / on | pose | (that) he / she / it puts downon: (that) we put down / one puts down | |
| nous | posions | (that) we put down | |
| vous | posiez | (that) you put down | |
| ils / elles | posent | (that) they put down |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul pose son sac près de la porte.
It is possible that Paul puts down his bag near the door.
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 stop carrying, to put down (something or somebody)
- to ask or pose (a question)
- to land (a plane)
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