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 renounce.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | renie | I renounce | |
| tu | renies | you renounce | |
| il / elle / on | renie | he / she / it renounceson: we renounce / one renounces | |
| nous | renions | we renounce | |
| vous | reniez | you renounce | |
| ils / elles | renient | they renounce |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul renie ses anciennes convictions.
Paul renounces his former beliefs.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai renié | I renounced | |
| tu | as renié | you renounced | |
| il / elle / on | a renié | he / she / it renouncedon: we renounced / one renounced | |
| nous | avons renié | we renounced | |
| vous | avez renié | you renounced | |
| ils / elles | ont renié | they renounced |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a renié ses anciennes convictions.
Yesterday, Paul renounced his former beliefs.
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’ | reniais | I used to renounce | |
| tu | reniais | you used to renounce | |
| il / elle / on | reniait | he / she / it used to renounceon: we used to renounce / one used to renounce | |
| nous | reniions | we used to renounce | |
| vous | reniiez | you used to renounce | |
| ils / elles | reniaient | they used to renounce |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul reniait ses anciennes convictions.
Back then, Paul used to renounce his former beliefs.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | renierai | I will renounce | |
| tu | renieras | you will renounce | |
| il / elle / on | reniera | he / she / it will renounceon: we will renounce / one will renounce | |
| nous | renierons | we will renounce | |
| vous | renierez | you will renounce | |
| ils / elles | renieront | they will renounce |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul reniera ses anciennes convictions.
Later, Paul will renounce his former beliefs.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | renierais | I would renounce | |
| tu | renierais | you would renounce | |
| il / elle / on | renierait | he / she / it would renounceon: we would renounce / one would renounce | |
| nous | renierions | we would renounce | |
| vous | renieriez | you would renounce | |
| ils / elles | renieraient | they would renounce |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul renierait ses anciennes convictions.
Paul would renounce his former beliefs.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | renie | (that) I renounce | |
| tu | renies | (that) you renounce | |
| il / elle / on | renie | (that) he / she / it renounceson: (that) we renounce / one renounces | |
| nous | reniions | (that) we renounce | |
| vous | reniiez | (that) you renounce | |
| ils / elles | renient | (that) they renounce |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul renie ses anciennes convictions.
It is possible that Paul renounces his former beliefs.
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 renounce
- to disown
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