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 watch.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | surveille | I watch | |
| tu | surveilles | you watch | |
| il / elle / on | surveille | he / she / it watcheson: we watch / one watches | |
| nous | surveillons | we watch | |
| vous | surveillez | you watch | |
| ils / elles | surveillent | they watch |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul surveille les enfants dans le jardin.
Paul watches the children in the garden.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai surveillé | I watched | |
| tu | as surveillé | you watched | |
| il / elle / on | a surveillé | he / she / it watchedon: we watched / one watched | |
| nous | avons surveillé | we watched | |
| vous | avez surveillé | you watched | |
| ils / elles | ont surveillé | they watched |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a surveillé les enfants dans le jardin.
Yesterday, Paul watched the children in the garden.
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’ | surveillais | I used to watch | |
| tu | surveillais | you used to watch | |
| il / elle / on | surveillait | he / she / it used to watchon: we used to watch / one used to watch | |
| nous | surveillions | we used to watch | |
| vous | surveilliez | you used to watch | |
| ils / elles | surveillaient | they used to watch |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul surveillait les enfants dans le jardin.
Back then, Paul used to watch the children in the garden.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | surveillerai | I will watch | |
| tu | surveilleras | you will watch | |
| il / elle / on | surveillera | he / she / it will watchon: we will watch / one will watch | |
| nous | surveillerons | we will watch | |
| vous | surveillerez | you will watch | |
| ils / elles | surveilleront | they will watch |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul surveillera les enfants dans le jardin.
Later, Paul will watch the children in the garden.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | surveillerais | I would watch | |
| tu | surveillerais | you would watch | |
| il / elle / on | surveillerait | he / she / it would watchon: we would watch / one would watch | |
| nous | surveillerions | we would watch | |
| vous | surveilleriez | you would watch | |
| ils / elles | surveilleraient | they would watch |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul surveillerait les enfants dans le jardin.
Paul would watch the children in the garden.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | surveille | (that) I watch | |
| tu | surveilles | (that) you watch | |
| il / elle / on | surveille | (that) he / she / it watcheson: (that) we watch / one watches | |
| nous | surveillions | (that) we watch | |
| vous | surveilliez | (that) you watch | |
| ils / elles | surveillent | (that) they watch |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul surveille les enfants dans le jardin.
It is possible that Paul watches the children in the garden.
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 monitor, to survey, to watch
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