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 stay up.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | veille | I stay up | |
| tu | veilles | you stay up | |
| il / elle / on | veille | he / she / it stays upon: we stay up / one stays up | |
| nous | veillons | we stay up | |
| vous | veillez | you stay up | |
| ils / elles | veillent | they stay up |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul veille tard pour terminer son travail.
Paul stays up late to finish his work.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai veillé | I stayed up | |
| tu | as veillé | you stayed up | |
| il / elle / on | a veillé | he / she / it stayed upon: we stayed up / one stayed up | |
| nous | avons veillé | we stayed up | |
| vous | avez veillé | you stayed up | |
| ils / elles | ont veillé | they stayed up |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a veillé tard pour terminer son travail.
Yesterday, Paul stayed up late to finish his work.
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’ | veillais | I used to stay up | |
| tu | veillais | you used to stay up | |
| il / elle / on | veillait | he / she / it used to stay upon: we used to stay up / one used to stay up | |
| nous | veillions | we used to stay up | |
| vous | veilliez | you used to stay up | |
| ils / elles | veillaient | they used to stay up |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul veillait tard pour terminer son travail.
Back then, Paul used to stay up late to finish his work.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | veillerai | I will stay up | |
| tu | veilleras | you will stay up | |
| il / elle / on | veillera | he / she / it will stay upon: we will stay up / one will stay up | |
| nous | veillerons | we will stay up | |
| vous | veillerez | you will stay up | |
| ils / elles | veilleront | they will stay up |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul veillera tard pour terminer son travail.
Later, Paul will stay up late to finish his work.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | veillerais | I would stay up | |
| tu | veillerais | you would stay up | |
| il / elle / on | veillerait | he / she / it would stay upon: we would stay up / one would stay up | |
| nous | veillerions | we would stay up | |
| vous | veilleriez | you would stay up | |
| ils / elles | veilleraient | they would stay up |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul veillerait tard pour terminer son travail.
Paul would stay up late to finish his work.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | veille | (that) I stay up | |
| tu | veilles | (that) you stay up | |
| il / elle / on | veille | (that) he / she / it stays upon: (that) we stay up / one stays up | |
| nous | veillions | (that) we stay up | |
| vous | veilliez | (that) you stay up | |
| ils / elles | veillent | (that) they stay up |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul veille tard pour terminer son travail.
It is possible that Paul stays up late to finish his work.
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 stay up, sit up
- to keep guard, keep watch
- to look after, see to ( + à); see to it that ( + à ce que)
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