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 dine.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | soupe | I dine | |
| tu | soupes | you dine | |
| il / elle / on | soupe | he / she / it dineson: we dine / one dines | |
| nous | soupons | we dine | |
| vous | soupez | you dine | |
| ils / elles | soupent | they dine |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul soupe avec ses voisins.
Paul dines with his neighbors.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai soupé | I dined | |
| tu | as soupé | you dined | |
| il / elle / on | a soupé | he / she / it dinedon: we dined / one dined | |
| nous | avons soupé | we dined | |
| vous | avez soupé | you dined | |
| ils / elles | ont soupé | they dined |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a soupé avec ses voisins.
Yesterday, Paul dined with his neighbors.
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’ | soupais | I used to dine | |
| tu | soupais | you used to dine | |
| il / elle / on | soupait | he / she / it used to dineon: we used to dine / one used to dine | |
| nous | soupions | we used to dine | |
| vous | soupiez | you used to dine | |
| ils / elles | soupaient | they used to dine |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul soupait avec ses voisins.
Back then, Paul used to dine with his neighbors.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | souperai | I will dine | |
| tu | souperas | you will dine | |
| il / elle / on | soupera | he / she / it will dineon: we will dine / one will dine | |
| nous | souperons | we will dine | |
| vous | souperez | you will dine | |
| ils / elles | souperont | they will dine |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul soupera avec ses voisins.
Later, Paul will dine with his neighbors.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | souperais | I would dine | |
| tu | souperais | you would dine | |
| il / elle / on | souperait | he / she / it would dineon: we would dine / one would dine | |
| nous | souperions | we would dine | |
| vous | souperiez | you would dine | |
| ils / elles | souperaient | they would dine |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul souperait avec ses voisins.
Paul would dine with his neighbors.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | soupe | (that) I dine | |
| tu | soupes | (that) you dine | |
| il / elle / on | soupe | (that) he / she / it dineson: (that) we dine / one dines | |
| nous | soupions | (that) we dine | |
| vous | soupiez | (that) you dine | |
| ils / elles | soupent | (that) they dine |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul soupe avec ses voisins.
It is possible that Paul dines with his neighbors.
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.”
Souper means have the evening meal in Canadian, Belgian and Swiss French; in France it can refer to a late supper.
Meaning & usage
- to dine
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