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 look at.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | regarde | I look at | |
| tu | regardes | you look at | |
| il / elle / on | regarde | he / she / it looks aton: we look at / one looks at | |
| nous | regardons | we look at | |
| vous | regardez | you look at | |
| ils / elles | regardent | they look at |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul regarde les étoiles.
Paul looks at the stars.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai regardé | I looked at | |
| tu | as regardé | you looked at | |
| il / elle / on | a regardé | he / she / it looked aton: we looked at / one looked at | |
| nous | avons regardé | we looked at | |
| vous | avez regardé | you looked at | |
| ils / elles | ont regardé | they looked at |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a regardé les étoiles.
Yesterday, Paul looked at the stars.
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’ | regardais | I used to look at | |
| tu | regardais | you used to look at | |
| il / elle / on | regardait | he / she / it used to look aton: we used to look at / one used to look at | |
| nous | regardions | we used to look at | |
| vous | regardiez | you used to look at | |
| ils / elles | regardaient | they used to look at |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul regardait les étoiles.
Back then, Paul used to look at the stars.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | regarderai | I will look at | |
| tu | regarderas | you will look at | |
| il / elle / on | regardera | he / she / it will look aton: we will look at / one will look at | |
| nous | regarderons | we will look at | |
| vous | regarderez | you will look at | |
| ils / elles | regarderont | they will look at |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul regardera les étoiles.
Later, Paul will look at the stars.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | regarderais | I would look at | |
| tu | regarderais | you would look at | |
| il / elle / on | regarderait | he / she / it would look aton: we would look at / one would look at | |
| nous | regarderions | we would look at | |
| vous | regarderiez | you would look at | |
| ils / elles | regarderaient | they would look at |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul regarderait les étoiles.
Paul would look at the stars.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | regarde | (that) I look at | |
| tu | regardes | (that) you look at | |
| il / elle / on | regarde | (that) he / she / it looks aton: (that) we look at / one looks at | |
| nous | regardions | (that) we look at | |
| vous | regardiez | (that) you look at | |
| ils / elles | regardent | (that) they look at |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul regarde les étoiles.
It is possible that Paul looks at the stars.
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 look at
- to watch
- to face
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