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 translate.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | traduis | I translate | |
| tu | traduis | you translate | |
| il / elle / on | traduit | he / she / it translateson: we translate / one translates | |
| nous | traduisons | we translate | |
| vous | traduisez | you translate | |
| ils / elles | traduisent | they translate |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul traduit cette lettre en anglais.
Paul translates this letter into English.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai traduit | I translated | |
| tu | as traduit | you translated | |
| il / elle / on | a traduit | he / she / it translatedon: we translated / one translated | |
| nous | avons traduit | we translated | |
| vous | avez traduit | you translated | |
| ils / elles | ont traduit | they translated |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a traduit cette lettre en anglais.
Yesterday, Paul translated this letter into English.
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’ | traduisais | I used to translate | |
| tu | traduisais | you used to translate | |
| il / elle / on | traduisait | he / she / it used to translateon: we used to translate / one used to translate | |
| nous | traduisions | we used to translate | |
| vous | traduisiez | you used to translate | |
| ils / elles | traduisaient | they used to translate |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul traduisait cette lettre en anglais.
Back then, Paul used to translate this letter into English.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | traduirai | I will translate | |
| tu | traduiras | you will translate | |
| il / elle / on | traduira | he / she / it will translateon: we will translate / one will translate | |
| nous | traduirons | we will translate | |
| vous | traduirez | you will translate | |
| ils / elles | traduiront | they will translate |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul traduira cette lettre en anglais.
Later, Paul will translate this letter into English.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | traduirais | I would translate | |
| tu | traduirais | you would translate | |
| il / elle / on | traduirait | he / she / it would translateon: we would translate / one would translate | |
| nous | traduirions | we would translate | |
| vous | traduiriez | you would translate | |
| ils / elles | traduiraient | they would translate |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul traduirait cette lettre en anglais.
Paul would translate this letter into English.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | traduise | (that) I translate | |
| tu | traduises | (that) you translate | |
| il / elle / on | traduise | (that) he / she / it translateson: (that) we translate / one translates | |
| nous | traduisions | (that) we translate | |
| vous | traduisiez | (that) you translate | |
| ils / elles | traduisent | (that) they translate |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul traduise cette lettre en anglais.
It is possible that Paul translates this letter into English.
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 translate
- to summon
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