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 follow.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | suis | I follow | |
| tu | suis | you follow | |
| il / elle / on | suit | he / she / it followson: we follow / one follows | |
| nous | suivons | we follow | |
| vous | suivez | you follow | |
| ils / elles | suivent | they follow |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul suit le guide dans le musée.
Paul follows the guide through the museum.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai suivi | I followed | |
| tu | as suivi | you followed | |
| il / elle / on | a suivi | he / she / it followedon: we followed / one followed | |
| nous | avons suivi | we followed | |
| vous | avez suivi | you followed | |
| ils / elles | ont suivi | they followed |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a suivi le guide dans le musée.
Yesterday, Paul followed the guide through the museum.
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’ | suivais | I used to follow | |
| tu | suivais | you used to follow | |
| il / elle / on | suivait | he / she / it used to followon: we used to follow / one used to follow | |
| nous | suivions | we used to follow | |
| vous | suiviez | you used to follow | |
| ils / elles | suivaient | they used to follow |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul suivait le guide dans le musée.
Back then, Paul used to follow the guide through the museum.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | suivrai | I will follow | |
| tu | suivras | you will follow | |
| il / elle / on | suivra | he / she / it will followon: we will follow / one will follow | |
| nous | suivrons | we will follow | |
| vous | suivrez | you will follow | |
| ils / elles | suivront | they will follow |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul suivra le guide dans le musée.
Later, Paul will follow the guide through the museum.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | suivrais | I would follow | |
| tu | suivrais | you would follow | |
| il / elle / on | suivrait | he / she / it would followon: we would follow / one would follow | |
| nous | suivrions | we would follow | |
| vous | suivriez | you would follow | |
| ils / elles | suivraient | they would follow |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul suivrait le guide dans le musée.
Paul would follow the guide through the museum.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | suive | (that) I follow | |
| tu | suives | (that) you follow | |
| il / elle / on | suive | (that) he / she / it followson: (that) we follow / one follows | |
| nous | suivions | (that) we follow | |
| vous | suiviez | (that) you follow | |
| ils / elles | suivent | (that) they follow |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul suive le guide dans le musée.
It is possible that Paul follows the guide through the museum.
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 follow (literal sense)
- to follow; to get (figurative sense; to understand what someone is saying)
- to take (a course or a class)
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