French verbs
Sign up for free to get all information about private lessons and our available group courses (A1, A2, B2, B2, C1, C2)
Sign up for freeLesson outline
HideWhat is a verb?
Verbs (French: les verbes) are 'doing' words which aim to describe what someone or something does, what someone or something is, or what happens to them, for example, be, sing, live.
Verbs can be divided into:
- finite verb forms (French: formes conjuguées)
- non-finite verb forms (French: formes non conjuguées)
- full verbs and auxiliary verbs
Have a question?
Take online language lessons with a professional teacher
- Native & verified teachers
- Free trial lesson
- Learning materials included
Maya W. 
Véronique A.
Paola A. 
NORDINE D.
KODZO A. 
Giulia D. 
Carolina S. 
Assil A. 
Evangelia V. 
Katia S.
Finite verb forms
Finite verb forms in general have a subject, which means that they can be the main verb in a sentence. Moreover, these verb forms can indicate a tense, person and number.
Basically we can differ between:
- simple tenses which consists of one word and is formed from the stem and the ending.
- compound tenses which are being formed by the auxiliary verbs avoir or être and the participe perfect.
Non-finite verb forms
Non-finite verb forms do not have a subject, tense or number. Basically, non-finite verb forms are the infinitive (faire), the gerund (en faisant) or the participle (faisant/fait).
Verbal tenses in French
Verbs are actions words or nouns that indicate what the action is and when it is happening in the present, future or past. But they can also express possibilities, obligations like the modal verbs
The French grammar has 4 verbal moods and each mood has a present tense, a past tense and a future tense
On this page you will find an overview of the different verb tenses in different sections with their respective exercises.
Moods | Present | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
Présent simple
| Imparfait Passé simple Passé composé Plus-que-parfait Passé intérieur
| Future simple Futur intérieur | |
Présent du conditionnel
| Passé du conditionnel |
| |
Imperatif présent | Impératif passé |
| |
Subjonctif présent | Subjonctif passé Subjonctif plus-que-parfait Subjonctif imparfait |
|
Use of verbal tenses in French
1. Present
- Present of the indicative: simple tense that is used to express a fact or an action that takes place when we express ourselves
- Present of the conditional: simple tense that can be used to mitigate a request
- Present of the imperative: simple tense that is used to express an order or an prohibition
- Present of the subjunctive: simple tense that is used to express an uncertain, unrealized action as we express ourselves
2. Past
- Imperfect of the indicative: simple tense that is used to express a fact or action that has already taken place at the moment we speak but can still unfold
- Literary past tense: simple tense that is used to express a completed action from the past, most often a brief action
- Past completed: compound tense that is used to express an action or fact that has already taken place at the moment we speak.
- Pluperfect of the indicative: compound tense that allows to express the anteriority of an action compared to a past action
- Past anterior: this compound tense is used most often with the literary past tense to express the anteriority of an action.
- Past of the conditional: compound tense that is used to express a regret or reproach smth to smne
- Past of the imperative: compound tense that is very little used but it allows to express the anteriority of an ordered action compared to an action which is not yet realized
- Past of the subjunctive: compound tense that is used to express an uncertain action, supposedly realized at the moment when we express ourselves.
- Imperfect of the subjunctive: simple tense that is used to express an uncertain action, unrealized at the moment when the speaker spoke. It is generally used in litterary
- Pluperfect of the subjunctive: compound tense that is used to express an uncertain action, supposedly performed at the moment when the speaker spoke. It is generally used in litterary
3. Future
- Future simple: simple tense that is used to express a fact or an action that will take place later, it has not yet taken place at the moment we express ourselves
- Future perfect: compound tense that is used to express a fact or an action that will be completed at that moment.
In addition, you can access from this page to: reflexive verbs, auxiliaries, the modals, passive or active voice, reported speech.
Examples
| Past | Present | Futur |
|---|---|---|---|
Simple | Elle vivait à London (she was living in London) | Elle travaille dans une usine (She works in a factory) | Elle viendra plus tard. (She will come later) |
Compound | Elle avait vécu à Londres. (She had lived in London.) | Elle m’a attendu au restaurant. (She has waited for me in the restaurant) | Elle sera venue plus tard. (She will have come later) |
Irregulars and regular verbs in French
Like in English, there are two types of verbs, irregular and regular. They differ by their way of conjugating.
Moreover generally, regular are French verbs ending in -er, -ir and belong to the 1st and 2nd group and irregular verbs are ending in -oir, -re, -ir and belong to the 3rd group.
Irregular verbs have a specific form for the present, past and participle
- voir – vu – vit
- partir – partit – partat
- mettre – mis – mette
Regular verbs have only one form and to make the past or participle
- finir – finis – finis
- travailler – travaillé – travaille
- acheter – acheté – achète
Auxiliaries in French
To begin, you should take a look at the auxiliary verbs that you will use multiple times to form the different verb compound tenses
here you will get an overview of the present, past a future of the auxiliaries avoir and être
Present | Past | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
J’ai (present simple) J’aurais (conditional present) Aies (present imperative) Que j’aie (subjunctive present) | J’avais (imperfect) Je fus (literary past tense) Que j’eusse (subjunctive imperfect | J’aurai (future simple) | |
Je suis (present simple) Je serais (conditional present) Sois (present imperative) Que je sois (subjunctive present) | J’étais (imperfect) Que je fusse (subjunctive imperfect) | Je serai (future simple) |
Conjugation of compound tenses
To form the compound tenses, you use the conjugation of the auxiliaries that you we saw below in the table.
- Past completed: present simple of avoir or être + past participle
- Pluperfect of the indicative: imperfect of avoir or être + past participle
- Past anterior: literary past tense of avoir or être + past participle
- Past imperative: present imperative of avoir or être + past participle
- Past subjunctive: present subjunctive of avoir or être + past participle
- Conditional past: conditional present of avoir or être + past participle
- Pluperfect of the subjunctive: subjunctive imperfect of avoir or être + past participle
- Future perfect: future simple of avoir or être + past participle
Modal verbs in French
Modal verbs (French: les verbes modaux) are also auxiliary verbs, but unlike the previous ones, they are complementary verbs that accompany other verbs. They express ability, possibility, obligation or other condition.
- Devoir
- Vouloir
- Savoir
- Aimer
- Falloir
- Pouvoir
Infinitive verbs and gerund in French
In French, we can also differentiate between infinitives and gerunds. They also in present and in past for the verbs:
- The present is simple
- The past is compound with the verb avoir or être