Être Conjugation: All Tenses and Uses (French)

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Want to get the French verb être (“to be”) straight once and for all?

In this article I'll walk you through the être conjugation across every tense you'll actually use, from the present right through to the subjunctive, with full tables and example sentences. More importantly, I'll show you the one job être does that trips up nearly every learner: its role as a helper verb in the past tense, where it forces you to change the ending of the verb that follows it. That's the bit most guides skip, and it's the bit that matters most.

A quick reassurance before we start. Être is irregular, which sounds scary, but it's irregular in the way your own name is “irregular”: you'll use it so often that the forms stick fast. You already half-know it. Je suis, c'est, vous êtes are some of the first words any French learner meets. We're just filling in the rest.

I learned French as my first serious foreign language, the one that cracked open the whole idea that an adult could go from zero to conversational fast. Être was one of the very first verbs I drilled, and it paid me back more than almost any other word I learned, because you reach for it constantly. That was a real lightbulb moment for me: nail a handful of high-frequency verbs and suddenly you can say loads. So let's get être nailed down.

By the way, être means “to be”, and it's what grammarians call an auxiliary verb, a helper. Hold that thought, because it's the key to the whole second half of this guide.

Être in the Present Tense (Le Présent)

This is the one to know cold. You'll use it in almost every conversation you ever have in French.

French	English
je suis	I am
tu es	you are (informal)
il / elle / on est	he / she / one is
nous sommes	we are
vous êtes	you are (formal / plural)
ils / elles sont	they are

A couple of quick pointers. Je suis is “I am”, and yes, it looks identical to je suis from the verb suivre (“to follow”), so “I am” and “I follow” are written the same way. Context sorts it out every time, so don't lose sleep over it.

Watch the little circumflex on vous êtes. And note that on est (“one is”, or in everyday speech “we are”) is everywhere in spoken French, far more than the textbook nous sommes.

Here it is in the wild:

• Je suis irlandais. (I am Irish.)
• Tu es prêt ? (Are you ready?)
• Nous sommes en retard. (We are late.)
• Ils sont à Paris. (They are in Paris.)

Être in the Past: Passé Composé (J'ai été)

To talk about the past in everyday French, you'll mostly use the passé composé. To build it for être itself, you take the present tense of avoir (“to have”) and add the past participle of être, which is été.

French	English
j'ai été	I was / I have been
tu as été	you were
il / elle / on a été	he / she / one was
nous avons été	we were
vous avez été	you were
ils / elles ont été	they were

Notice the quirk here: even though we're talking about être, its own past tense is built with avoir. So “I have been” is j'ai été, never “je suis été”.

• J'ai été malade hier. (I was ill yesterday.)
• Ça a été une belle journée. (It was a lovely day.)

This is worth flagging early because être spends most of its life as the helper for other verbs' past tenses, which is the big topic further down. Keep it separate in your head: être‘s own past uses avoir; lots of other verbs' pasts use être.

Être in the Imperfect (L'Imparfait)

The imparfait is your tense for “was” and “used to be”, for description and background. It's lovely and regular for être: one stem, ét-, plus the standard imperfect endings.

French	English
j'étais	I was / I used to be
tu étais	you were
il / elle / on était	he / she / one was
nous étions	we were
vous étiez	you were
ils / elles étaient	they were

• Quand j'étais petit, j'étais timide. (When I was little, I was shy.)
• Il était une fois… (Once upon a time…, literally “It was one time…”)

If you want to go deeper on when to reach for the imperfect versus the passé composé, we've got a full guide to the French imparfait.

Être in the Future (Le Futur Simple)

Here être takes a brand-new stem, ser-, which you'll also recognise from the conditional below. Learn ser- once and you've got two tenses for the price of one.

French	English
je serai	I will be
tu seras	you will be
il / elle / on sera	he / she / one will be
nous serons	we will be
vous serez	you will be
ils / elles seront	they will be

• Je serai là à huit heures. (I will be there at eight o'clock.)
• Ce sera difficile. (It will be difficult.)

Être in the Conditional (Le Conditionnel Présent)

The conditional is your “would be” tense, perfect for being polite or talking about hypotheticals. It uses the same ser- stem as the future, with imperfect-style endings tacked on.

French	English
je serais	I would be
tu serais	you would be
il / elle / on serait	he / she / one would be
nous serions	we would be
vous seriez	you would be
ils / elles seraient	they would be

• Ce serait génial ! (That would be great!)
• Je serais ravi de t'aider. (I would be delighted to help you.)

Être in the Subjunctive (Le Subjonctif Présent)

The subjunctive shows up after certain expressions of wish, emotion, doubt or necessity, very often introduced by que (“that”). Être‘s subjunctive forms are genuinely irregular, so they're worth a little extra drilling.

French	English
que je sois	that I be
que tu sois	that you be
qu'il / elle / on soit	that he / she / one be
que nous soyons	that we be
que vous soyez	that you be
qu'ils / elles soient	that they be

• Il faut que tu sois patient. (You need to be patient.)
• Je veux qu'elle soit heureuse. (I want her to be happy.)

The subjunctive feels alien at first, but you'll meet que je sois and qu'il soit constantly, so they bed in quickly. For the bigger picture, here's our guide to the French subjunctive.

Être in the Imperative (L'Impératif)

The imperative is for commands and encouragement. Être borrows its subjunctive forms here, so if you've learned sois, soyons and soyez above, you've already done the work.

Affirmative	English	Negative	English
sois	be (informal)	ne sois pas	don't be
soyons	let's be	ne soyons pas	let's not be
soyez	be (formal / plural)	ne soyez pas	don't be

• Sois sage ! (Be good! / Behave!)
• Soyez les bienvenus. (Welcome, literally “Be the welcomed ones.”)
• Ne sois pas timide. (Don't be shy.)

Être in the Passé Simple (Le Passé Simple)

You won't speak this one, so don't sweat it. The passé simple is the literary past tense: you'll meet it in novels, fairy tales and formal writing, but never in conversation. It's worth recognising the forms so they don't throw you when you're reading.

French	English
je fus	I was
tu fus	you were
il / elle / on fut	he / she / one was
nous fûmes	we were
vous fûtes	you were
ils / elles furent	they were

You'll spot il fut and ils furent in storytelling. Recognise them, then move on.

Participles: Étant and Été

Two forms round out the set:

• Participe présent: étant (“being”). As in étant donné que… (“given that…”), a handy phrase to have ready.
• Participe passé: été (“been”). This is the one you've already used to build the passé composé above, and you'll see it again across all the compound tenses.

The Big One: Être as a Helper Verb

Here's the part most quick conjugation tables leave out, and it's the most useful thing on this page.

In the passé composé and the other compound past tenses, most French verbs use avoir as their helper. But a specific set of verbs use être instead. When they do, two things happen that beginners rarely expect, so let's take them one at a time.

Which verbs use être? The “house of être”

The verbs that take être are mostly about coming, going, arriving, leaving, rising, falling, being born and dying: movement and changes of state. Teachers package them up with the mnemonic DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP, where each letter is the first letter of one of these verbs:

Letter	Verb	Meaning
D	Devenir	to become
R	Revenir	to come back
M	Monter	to go up
R	Rester	to stay
S	Sortir	to go out
V	Venir	to come
A	Aller	to go
N	Naître	to be born
D	Descendre	to go down
E	Entrer	to enter
R	Rentrer	to go home
T	Tomber	to fall
R	Retourner	to return
A	Arriver	to arrive
M	Mourir	to die
P	Partir	to leave

You'll also hear this called the “house of être“, because teachers love drawing a little house with people climbing the stairs (monter), coming in the door (entrer), being born (naître) and so on. Whichever picture you prefer, it's the same set of verbs. Their compound forms (partir, repartir, remonter and friends) follow along too.

The agreement rule (this is the gap)

Here's the part that catches everyone out. When a verb takes être in the passé composé, its past participle agrees with the subject, exactly like an adjective. You add -e if the subject is feminine, -s if it's plural, and -es if it's both.

Subject	Sentence	English
masculine singular	Il est allé.	He went.
feminine singular	Elle est allée.	She went.
masculine plural	Ils sont allés.	They went.
feminine plural	Elles sont allées.	They went.

So a woman writing about herself says je suis allée (with the extra -e), while a man writes je suis allé. This never happens with the avoir verbs in the same way, which is exactly why the être set deserves its own attention.

• Marie est née en France. (Marie was born in France.)
• Nous sommes arrivés en retard. (We arrived late, group including at least one male.)
• Elles sont parties tôt. (They left early, all-female group.)

One important catch: when these verbs take avoir

A handful of the house-of-être verbs can flip to avoir when they're used with a direct object (when you do something to a thing). The meaning shifts slightly too:

• Je suis monté. (I went up.) versus J'ai monté les valises. (I took the suitcases up.)
• Elle est sortie. (She went out.) versus Elle a sorti les poubelles. (She took out the bins.)

When there's a direct object after the verb, swap to avoir. It's a small wrinkle, but it explains sentences that would otherwise look like mistakes.

All reflexive verbs use être too

Here's the other half of the rule that thin guides skip. *Every reflexive (pronominal) verb uses être** in the passé composé*, and they follow the same agreement pattern.

• Elle s'est levée. (She got up.)
• Ils se sont couchés tard. (They went to bed late.)
• Je me suis trompé. / Je me suis trompée. (I made a mistake, male / female speaker.)

So se lever, se coucher, s'habiller, se laver and the whole reflexive family all build their past with être. If you want to go deeper here, we've got a dedicated guide to French reflexive verbs with full conjugations.

The Main Uses of Être

Conjugation is only half the story. Here's what être actually does for you in real sentences.

Identity and description. This is the bread and butter: saying what or how something is.

• Je suis fatigué. (I am tired.)
• Le ciel est bleu. (The sky is blue.)

Jobs and professions. Note that French drops the “a/an” here.

• Elle est médecin. (She is a doctor, literally “She is doctor.”)
• Je suis professeur. (I am a teacher.)

Telling the time. Time always runs on être.

• Il est trois heures. (It is three o'clock.)
• Il est tard. (It is late.)

Building the past tense, as we've just seen at length, for the house-of-être verbs and all reflexives.

C'est versus il est

One last thing that confuses nearly everyone, and it's worth getting right because you'll use both constantly.

Use c'est (“it is / this is / that is”) before a noun, a name, or a stand-alone description:

• C'est un bon livre. (It's a good book.)
• C'est Marie. (It's Marie.)
• C'est génial ! (It's great!)

Use il / elle est (“he / she / it is”) before an adjective on its own, or before an unmodified profession:

• Il est intelligent. (He is intelligent.)
• Elle est avocate. (She is a lawyer.)

The rough rule of thumb: if a noun with an article (un, une, le, la) is coming next, reach for c'est. If it's a bare adjective or profession, use il / elle est. You'll develop a feel for it fast once you're speaking.

Common Mistakes With Être

A few slip-ups I see again and again, and how to dodge them:

• *Building être‘s own past with itself. It's j'ai été, not “je suis été”. Être‘s past participle rides on avoir*.
• Forgetting the agreement. With the house-of-être verbs and reflexives, the participle has to match the subject. Elle est allé should be elle est allée.
• *Using être for age and feelings of hunger or cold. French uses avoir (“to have”) for these: j'ai faim (“I'm hungry”, literally “I have hunger”), j'ai froid (“I'm cold”), j'ai vingt ans (“I'm twenty”). Reaching for être* here is one of the most common beginner errors.
• Adding “a/an” before a job. It's je suis professeur, not “je suis un professeur”.
• *Mixing up c'est and il est.* When in doubt, check whether a noun-with-article is coming next.

Putting Être to Work

Être is the single most useful verb in French, and the good news is that constant use means it sinks in fast. Lock in the present tense first, get comfortable with the passé composé (both être‘s own and its helper role), and the rest will follow with practice.

From here, it's worth shoring up the verbs and vocabulary that travel alongside être every day: a stock of French question words, the French accent marks you'll need to spell these forms correctly, and plenty of speaking practice so the conjugations become automatic rather than something you have to stop and work out.

That last point about speaking is the heart of how I approach every language. Reading a conjugation table is one thing; reaching for je suis and elle est allée in a real conversation without freezing is another, and the only way to bridge the gap is to start talking sooner than feels comfortable. If you'd like a structured way to do exactly that, with real coaching and a community, that's what we build inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp: a method and a group of people to get you speaking French with a real human, fast.

For now, you've got the full être conjugation and the rules that actually matter. Go and put it to work.