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French · Verb Tables · Intermediate

Tomber Conjugation

tomber means "to fall" in French. Present: je tombe, tu tombes, il / elle / on tombe, nous tombons, vous tombez, ils / elles tombent. Below: all 13 tenses we teach, with examples.

Present Présent

Formed by adding the present endings to the verb stem. Used for current states, habits, general truths, and (as in English) for actions happening right now.

Present continuous — (être en train de + infinitif)

French has no dedicated present-continuous tense. To stress that an action is in progress right now, use the present tense of être + en train de + the infinitive. Plain présent already covers ongoing action most of the time.

Simple past / Present perfect Passé composé

Formed with avoir or être in the present tense + past participle. In everyday spoken and written French this single compound tense does the job that some languages split between a simple past and a present perfect: it covers both "I spoke" and "I have spoken". (The literary simple past, passé simple, is reserved for formal narrative writing and is covered at the Native level.)

Imperfect Imparfait

Formed from the nous-stem of the present tense (drop -ons) + imperfect endings. Used for descriptions, background, habitual or repeated past actions, and states in the past ("used to", "was ...ing").

Pluperfect Plus-que-parfait

Formed with avoir or être in the imperfect + past participle. Describes an action that had already happened before another past action or moment.

Near future Futur proche

Formed with aller in the present tense + infinitive. The normal, everyday way to talk about the near or planned future, much more common in speech than the futur simple.

Simple future Futur simple

Formed from the infinitive (dropping the final -e of -re verbs) + future endings, which are the same for all verbs. Used for future facts, promises, and more formal or written predictions.

Future perfect Futur antérieur

Formed with avoir or être in the simple future + past participle. Describes an action that will already be completed by a given point in the future.

Conditional Conditionnel présent

Formed from the same stem as the simple future + the imperfect endings. Used for polite requests, hypothetical results ("would"), and softened suggestions or advice.

Conditional perfect Conditionnel passé

Formed with avoir or être in the conditional + past participle. Describes what would have happened (often in the result clause of a past hypothetical with si + plus-que-parfait).

Present subjunctive Subjonctif présent

For most verbs, formed by adding subjunctive endings to the stem taken from the ils/elles form of the present indicative (parlent -> parl-), except that nous and vous borrow the imperfect stem. Used for present or future subordinate actions after a triggering expression.

Present perfect subjunctive Subjonctif passé

Formed with avoir or être in the present subjunctive + past participle. Used for a subordinate action that is (or will be) completed before the action of the main clause.

Imperative Impératif

Same form as the present indicative for tu, nous, vous, except that -er verbs (and verbs conjugated like them) drop the final -s of the tu form: parle, not parles. The negative imperative is formed the same way, simply placed inside ne ... pas (Ne parle pas.); object pronouns attach after the verb with a hyphen in the affirmative (Parle-lui.) but come before it in the negative (Ne lui parle pas.).

Examples

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