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 post.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | poste | I post | |
| tu | postes | you post | |
| il / elle / on | poste | he / she / it postson: we post / one posts | |
| nous | postons | we post | |
| vous | postez | you post | |
| ils / elles | postent | they post |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul poste une lettre à sa sœur.
Paul posts a letter to his sister.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai posté | I posted | |
| tu | as posté | you posted | |
| il / elle / on | a posté | he / she / it postedon: we posted / one posted | |
| nous | avons posté | we posted | |
| vous | avez posté | you posted | |
| ils / elles | ont posté | they posted |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a posté une lettre à sa sœur.
Yesterday, Paul posted a letter to his sister.
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’ | postais | I used to post | |
| tu | postais | you used to post | |
| il / elle / on | postait | he / she / it used to poston: we used to post / one used to post | |
| nous | postions | we used to post | |
| vous | postiez | you used to post | |
| ils / elles | postaient | they used to post |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul postait une lettre à sa sœur.
Back then, Paul used to post a letter to his sister.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | posterai | I will post | |
| tu | posteras | you will post | |
| il / elle / on | postera | he / she / it will poston: we will post / one will post | |
| nous | posterons | we will post | |
| vous | posterez | you will post | |
| ils / elles | posteront | they will post |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul postera une lettre à sa sœur.
Later, Paul will post a letter to his sister.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | posterais | I would post | |
| tu | posterais | you would post | |
| il / elle / on | posterait | he / she / it would poston: we would post / one would post | |
| nous | posterions | we would post | |
| vous | posteriez | you would post | |
| ils / elles | posteraient | they would post |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul posterait une lettre à sa sœur.
Paul would post a letter to his sister.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | poste | (that) I post | |
| tu | postes | (that) you post | |
| il / elle / on | poste | (that) he / she / it postson: (that) we post / one posts | |
| nous | postions | (that) we post | |
| vous | postiez | (that) you post | |
| ils / elles | postent | (that) they post |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul poste une lettre à sa sœur.
It is possible that Paul posts a letter to his sister.
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 post, (put in the) mail
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