French Verb Conjugations
| Present | Imperfect | Future | Conditional | Subjunctive | Imperfect subj. | |||
| n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | |||
| Passé composé | Past perfect | Future perfect | Past conditional | Past subjunctive | Pluperfect subj. | |||
| je / j’ | ai parfait | avais parfait | aurai parfait | aurais parfait | aie parfait | eusse parfait | ||
| tu | as parfait | avais parfait | auras parfait | aurais parfait | aies parfait | eusses parfait | ||
| il | a parfait | avait parfait | aura parfait | aurait parfait | ait parfait | eût parfait | ||
| nous | avons parfait | avions parfait | aurons parfait | aurions parfait | ayons parfait | eussions parfait | ||
| vous | avez parfait | aviez parfait | aurez parfait | auriez parfait | ayez parfait | eussiez parfait | ||
| ils | ont parfait | avaient parfait | auront parfait | auraient parfait | aient parfait | eussent parfait | ||
| Passé simple | Past anterior | Imperative | Participles | |||||
| j’ | n/a | eus parfait | n/a | Present | n/a | |||
| tu | eus parfait | Past | parfait | |||||
| il | eut parfait | Perfect | ayant parfait | |||||
| nous | eûmes parfait | Past imperative | ||||||
| vous | eûtes parfait | (tu) | aie parfait | Past infinitive | ||||
| ils | eurent parfait | (nous) | ayons parfait | avoir parfait | ||||
| (vous) | ayez parfait | |||||||
Parfaire is an irregular -re verb that is only used in compound conjugations.

The passé composé is the most important French past tense, and just to make things interesting, it has three possible English equivalents.


The mountain of French verb conjugations you have to learn can be overwhelming – even just in the classroom where you have plenty of time to think about the correct response. Once you start talking to people in the real world, trying to figure out the appropriate verb conjugation can leave you speechless – literally. So what’s the solution? Learn, then practice, practice, practice!
Inverting subjects and verbs is easy enough – vous voyez => voyez-vous, but where do object, adverbial, and reflexive pronouns go? And what about negation? Take a look at this lesson to learn about all the possibilities.