réussir: conjugation and meaning · How to Learn French

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 manage to.”

Present Présent

Habits, current states, and actions happening now.

réussir: Present, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	réussis	I manage to
tu	réussis	you manage to
il / elle / on	réussit	he / she / it manages toon: we manage to / one manages to
nous	réussissons	we manage to
vous	réussissez	you manage to
ils / elles	réussissent	they manage to

IN A SENTENCEPresent example

Paul réussit à finir le travail.

Paul manages to finish the work.

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Passé composé

Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.

réussir: Passé composé, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	ai réussi	I managed to
tu	as réussi	you managed to
il / elle / on	a réussi	he / she / it managed toon: we managed to / one managed to
nous	avons réussi	we managed to
vous	avez réussi	you managed to
ils / elles	ont réussi	they managed to

IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example

Hier, Paul a réussi à finir le travail.

Yesterday, Paul managed to finish the work.

The passé composé uses avoir. The table shows the unmarked participle; agreement with a preceding direct object is outside this reference.

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Imperfect Imparfait

Past habits, descriptions, and actions in progress.

réussir: Imperfect, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	réussissais	I used to manage to
tu	réussissais	you used to manage to
il / elle / on	réussissait	he / she / it used to manage toon: we used to manage to / one used to manage to
nous	réussissions	we used to manage to
vous	réussissiez	you used to manage to
ils / elles	réussissaient	they used to manage to

IN A SENTENCEImperfect example

Autrefois, Paul réussissait à finir le travail.

Back then, Paul used to manage to finish the work.

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Future Futur simple

Future events and predictions.

réussir: Future, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	réussirai	I will manage to
tu	réussiras	you will manage to
il / elle / on	réussira	he / she / it will manage toon: we will manage to / one will manage to
nous	réussirons	we will manage to
vous	réussirez	you will manage to
ils / elles	réussiront	they will manage to

IN A SENTENCEFuture example

Plus tard, Paul réussira à finir le travail.

Later, Paul will manage to finish the work.

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Conditional Conditionnel présent

Hypothetical events and polite requests.

réussir: Conditional, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	réussirais	I would manage to
tu	réussirais	you would manage to
il / elle / on	réussirait	he / she / it would manage toon: we would manage to / one would manage to
nous	réussirions	we would manage to
vous	réussiriez	you would manage to
ils / elles	réussiraient	they would manage to

IN A SENTENCEConditional example

Paul réussirait à finir le travail.

Paul would manage to finish the work.

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Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent

Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.

réussir: Present subjunctive, with English translations
Subject	French	English
je / j’	réussisse	(that) I manage to
tu	réussisses	(that) you manage to
il / elle / on	réussisse	(that) he / she / it manages toon: (that) we manage to / one manages to
nous	réussissions	(that) we manage to
vous	réussissiez	(that) you manage to
ils / elles	réussissent	(that) they manage to

IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example

Il est possible que Paul réussisse à finir le travail.

It is possible that Paul manages to finish the work.

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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 manage to do something
to pass (a test); to succeed at something

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