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 repay.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | rembourse | I repay | |
| tu | rembourses | you repay | |
| il / elle / on | rembourse | he / she / it repayson: we repay / one repays | |
| nous | remboursons | we repay | |
| vous | remboursez | you repay | |
| ils / elles | remboursent | they repay |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul rembourse son prêt à la banque.
Paul repays his loan to the bank.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai remboursé | I repaid | |
| tu | as remboursé | you repaid | |
| il / elle / on | a remboursé | he / she / it repaidon: we repaid / one repaid | |
| nous | avons remboursé | we repaid | |
| vous | avez remboursé | you repaid | |
| ils / elles | ont remboursé | they repaid |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a remboursé son prêt à la banque.
Yesterday, Paul repaid his loan to the bank.
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’ | remboursais | I used to repay | |
| tu | remboursais | you used to repay | |
| il / elle / on | remboursait | he / she / it used to repayon: we used to repay / one used to repay | |
| nous | remboursions | we used to repay | |
| vous | remboursiez | you used to repay | |
| ils / elles | remboursaient | they used to repay |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul remboursait son prêt à la banque.
Back then, Paul used to repay his loan to the bank.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | rembourserai | I will repay | |
| tu | rembourseras | you will repay | |
| il / elle / on | remboursera | he / she / it will repayon: we will repay / one will repay | |
| nous | rembourserons | we will repay | |
| vous | rembourserez | you will repay | |
| ils / elles | rembourseront | they will repay |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul remboursera son prêt à la banque.
Later, Paul will repay his loan to the bank.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | rembourserais | I would repay | |
| tu | rembourserais | you would repay | |
| il / elle / on | rembourserait | he / she / it would repayon: we would repay / one would repay | |
| nous | rembourserions | we would repay | |
| vous | rembourseriez | you would repay | |
| ils / elles | rembourseraient | they would repay |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul rembourserait son prêt à la banque.
Paul would repay his loan to the bank.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | rembourse | (that) I repay | |
| tu | rembourses | (that) you repay | |
| il / elle / on | rembourse | (that) he / she / it repayson: (that) we repay / one repays | |
| nous | remboursions | (that) we repay | |
| vous | remboursiez | (that) you repay | |
| ils / elles | remboursent | (that) they repay |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul rembourse son prêt à la banque.
It is possible that Paul repays his loan to the bank.
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 pay back, refund, reimburse
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