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 see.”
Present Présent
Habits, current states, and actions happening now.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | vois | I see | |
| tu | vois | you see | |
| il / elle / on | voit | he / she / it seeson: we see / one sees | |
| nous | voyons | we see | |
| vous | voyez | you see | |
| ils / elles | voient | they see |
IN A SENTENCEPresent example
Paul voit la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
Paul sees the sea from his window.
Passé composé
Completed past events, using avoir or être plus a past participle.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | ai vu | I saw | |
| tu | as vu | you saw | |
| il / elle / on | a vu | he / she / it sawon: we saw / one saw | |
| nous | avons vu | we saw | |
| vous | avez vu | you saw | |
| ils / elles | ont vu | they saw |
IN A SENTENCEPassé composé example
Hier, Paul a vu la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
Yesterday, Paul saw the sea from his window.
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’ | voyais | I used to see | |
| tu | voyais | you used to see | |
| il / elle / on | voyait | he / she / it used to seeon: we used to see / one used to see | |
| nous | voyions | we used to see | |
| vous | voyiez | you used to see | |
| ils / elles | voyaient | they used to see |
IN A SENTENCEImperfect example
Autrefois, Paul voyait la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
Back then, Paul used to see the sea from his window.
Future Futur simple
Future events and predictions.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | verrai | I will see | |
| tu | verras | you will see | |
| il / elle / on | verra | he / she / it will seeon: we will see / one will see | |
| nous | verrons | we will see | |
| vous | verrez | you will see | |
| ils / elles | verront | they will see |
IN A SENTENCEFuture example
Plus tard, Paul verra la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
Later, Paul will see the sea from his window.
Conditional Conditionnel présent
Hypothetical events and polite requests.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | verrais | I would see | |
| tu | verrais | you would see | |
| il / elle / on | verrait | he / she / it would seeon: we would see / one would see | |
| nous | verrions | we would see | |
| vous | verriez | you would see | |
| ils / elles | verraient | they would see |
IN A SENTENCEConditional example
Paul verrait la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
Paul would see the sea from his window.
Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent
Dependent clauses expressing wishes, necessity, doubt, and certain feelings.
| Subject | French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j’ | voie | (that) I see | |
| tu | voies | (that) you see | |
| il / elle / on | voie | (that) he / she / it seeson: (that) we see / one sees | |
| nous | voyions | (that) we see | |
| vous | voyiez | (that) you see | |
| ils / elles | voient | (that) they see |
IN A SENTENCEPresent subjunctive example
Il est possible que Paul voie la mer depuis sa fenêtre.
It is possible that Paul sees the sea from his window.
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 see (visually)
- to see (to understand)
- to see (to visit, to go and see)
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