French grammar · Beginner
Aimer in French: What J'aime Means and How to Conjugate It
J'aime means I like or I love, from the verb aimer. It is a fully regular -er verb, so the whole conjugation follows from the stem aim-, and the only things that need attention are the elision in j'aime, the liaison in nous aimons, and the article French insists on putting after it.
J'aime le chocolat, mais je n'aime pas les gâteaux.
I like chocolate, but I don't like cakes.
What it is
Aimer is the ordinary French verb for liking and for loving, and the sentence around it decides which. The verb itself is as regular as they come: take aim-, add the standard -er endings, and every tense falls out. What trips learners is not the endings but what has to follow the verb.
J'aime la musique, tu aimes danser, elle aime son frère. — I like music, you like dancing, she loves her brother.
How to spot it
The stem aim- begins with a vowel, so the words in front of it contract: je becomes j', ne becomes n', que becomes qu'.
- J'aime beaucoup ce film. — I really like this film.
- Je n'aime pas attendre. — I don't like waiting.
- Nous aimons voyager. — We like travelling.
- Ils aiment sortir le week-end. — They like going out at the weekend.
Nous aimons and ils aiment carry an audible z from the liaison: nou-z-aimons, il-z-aiment. Without it the sentence sounds clipped.
Aimer Quick Reference
Aimer in the six persons of the present
| French | English | Pronunciation note |
|---|---|---|
| j'aime | I like, I love | je always elides to j' |
| tu aimes | you like | final s silent |
| il / elle aime | he / she likes | sounds identical to j'aime |
| nous aimons | we like | liaison: nou-z-aimons |
| vous aimez | you like | liaison: vou-z-aimez |
| ils / elles aiment | they like | liaison: il-z-aiment, -ent silent |
| je n'aime pas | I don't like | ne elides before the vowel |
| j'aimerais | I would like | conditional, the polite form |
Common Aimer Examples in French
Aimer with each kind of thing you can like:
Liking a Thing
- J'aime le thé vert.
- I like green tea.
- Elle aime les vieux films.
- She likes old films.
- Tu aimes la mer ?
- Do you like the sea?
- Nous aimons la cuisine italienne.
- We like Italian food.
The definite article is obligatory here. Aimer covers the whole category, so j'aime le café means coffee in general.
Liking an Activity
- J'aime nager le matin.
- I like swimming in the morning.
- Il aime cuisiner pour ses amis.
- He likes cooking for his friends.
- Vous aimez lire ?
- Do you like reading?
- Elles aiment se promener après le dîner.
- They like taking a walk after dinner.
No preposition comes between aimer and the infinitive. J'aime nager, never j'aime à nager in modern French.
Loving a Person
- Je t'aime.
- I love you.
- Elle aime son mari.
- She loves her husband.
- Il aime ses enfants plus que tout.
- He loves his children more than anything.
- Ils s'aiment depuis vingt ans.
- They've loved each other for twenty years.
With a person and no adverb, aimer means romantic or family love. Adding bien weakens it to friendly liking.
Saying You Don't
- Je n'aime pas ça du tout.
- I don't like that at all.
- Elle n'aime pas les épinards.
- She doesn't like spinach.
- On n'aime pas beaucoup ce quartier.
- We don't much like this area.
- Je n'ai jamais aimé le sport.
- I've never liked sport.
The article survives the negative. Je n'aime pas le poisson keeps le, unlike je ne mange pas de poisson.
How Aimer Works
The conjugation is straightforward; the sentence patterns around it are what you actually have to learn.
The Stem Is Aim- Everywhere
Remove -er and nothing else changes. There is no accent shift, no doubled consonant, and no irregular stem in any tense, which makes aimer one of the standard model verbs for the -er group.
J'aime, j'aimais, j'aimerai, que j'aime.
I like, I liked, I will like, that I like.
aim- + regular -er endings.
A Vowel Start Forces Elision
Because aim- opens with a vowel, the small words before it lose their own vowel. Je, ne, que, and me all contract, and this is obligatory in writing as well as speech.
Je pense qu'elle n'aime pas ça.
I think she doesn't like that.
j'aime, n'aime, qu'il aime.
A Noun After Aimer Needs an Article
Liking applies to a whole category, and French marks categories with the definite article. English drops it, which is why learners drop it too, but j'aime café is not a sentence.
Elle aime les chiens mais elle a peur des chats.
She likes dogs but she's afraid of cats.
aimer + le / la / les, always.
An Infinitive Follows Directly
When what you like is an action, put the infinitive straight after the verb with nothing in between. English uses an -ing form here, which has no French equivalent in this position.
Nous aimons marcher en montagne.
We like walking in the mountains.
aimer + infinitive, no preposition.
The Past Splits Into Two Meanings
In the imperfect, aimer describes a taste you used to have. In the passé composé it usually reports a verdict on one occasion, which is why j'ai aimé is the natural way to say you enjoyed a specific film or meal.
J'aimais le rap adolescent, mais je n'ai pas aimé ce concert.
I liked rap as a teenager, but I didn't enjoy that concert.
j'aimais = used to like, j'ai aimé = enjoyed that one.
Common Mistakes with Aimer
Incorrect: Je aime le fromage. — I like cheese.
Correct: J'aime le fromage. — I like cheese.
Je must elide before a vowel. This is not optional or stylistic; the written form is j'aime in every register.
Incorrect: J'aime chocolat. — I like chocolate.
Correct: J'aime le chocolat. — I like chocolate.
Aimer refers to the whole category, and French marks categories with the definite article. English leaves it out, which is exactly why the mistake is so consistent.
Incorrect: J'aime à voyager. — I like travelling.
Correct: J'aime voyager. — I like travelling.
Modern French puts the infinitive directly after aimer. The à survives only in nineteenth-century writing.
Incorrect: J'aime que tu es là. — I like it that you're here.
Correct: J'aime que tu sois là. — I like it that you're here.
Aimer que reports a feeling about someone else's action, and feelings take the subjunctive. Es is indicative; sois is the form the clause requires.
Aimer in Every Tense
Because the stem never changes, these tables show the plain -er pattern with nothing hidden. Any regular -er verb can be substituted straight in.
Simple tenses
The future and the conditional are built on the whole infinitive aimer-, so the silent e is written in both.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | conditionnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | aime | aimais | aimerai | aimerais |
| tu | aimes | aimais | aimeras | aimerais |
| il / elle / on | aime | aimait | aimera | aimerait |
| nous | aimons | aimions | aimerons | aimerions |
| vous | aimez | aimiez | aimerez | aimeriez |
| ils / elles | aiment | aimaient | aimeront | aimeraient |
J'aimerais is by far the most used conditional form in the language: it is the polite I would like.
Compound tenses
Aimer takes avoir and the participle aimé, which agrees only with a direct object placed in front of the verb.
| Pronoun | passé composé | plus-que-parfait | conditionnel passé |
|---|---|---|---|
| j' | ai aimé | avais aimé | aurais aimé |
| tu | as aimé | avais aimé | aurais aimé |
| il / elle / on | a aimé | avait aimé | aurait aimé |
| nous | avons aimé | avions aimé | aurions aimé |
| vous | avez aimé | aviez aimé | auriez aimé |
| ils / elles | ont aimé | avaient aimé | auraient aimé |
J'aurais aimé venir means I would have liked to come, and it is the standard way to decline an invitation politely.
Subjunctive and imperative
The subjunctive of aimer looks identical to the present except in the nous and vous forms. The imperative is rare but exists, mostly in slogans and religious language.
| Pronoun | subjonctif | impératif |
|---|---|---|
| que je / j' | aime | — |
| que tu | aimes | aime |
| qu'il / elle / on | aime | — |
| que nous | aimions | aimons |
| que vous | aimiez | aimez |
| qu'ils / elles | aiment | — |
The tu imperative loses the s of aimes, giving aime, like every regular -er verb.
What Can Follow Aimer
The verb takes three different kinds of complement, and each one has its own rule about prepositions and moods.
Aimer + infinitive
Nothing goes between the two verbs. French has no gerund in this position, so the infinitive covers what English expresses with -ing.
- J'aime dormir tard le dimanche.
- I like sleeping late on Sundays.
- Elle n'aime pas conduire la nuit.
- She doesn't like driving at night.
- Nous aimerions partir tôt.
- We'd like to leave early.
Aimer à faire exists in literary French but sounds archaic today. Leave the à out.
Aimer que + subjunctive
When what you like involves someone else doing something, you need a que clause, and because liking is an emotional reaction, the verb inside it goes into the subjunctive.
- J'aime que tu me dises la vérité.
- I like it when you tell me the truth.
- Il n'aime pas qu'on le contredise.
- He doesn't like being contradicted.
- Elle aimerait que nous soyons à l'heure.
- She'd like us to be on time.
If both halves have the same subject, drop the clause and use an infinitive: j'aime avoir raison, not j'aime que j'aie raison.
Aimer mieux and j'aimerais
Aimer mieux is the everyday way to say prefer, and the conditional j'aimerais softens a request into something polite.
- J'aime mieux rester ici.
- I'd rather stay here.
- J'aimerais réserver une table.
- I'd like to book a table.
- Nous aimerions mieux y aller demain.
- We'd rather go tomorrow.
Aimer mieux and préférer mean the same thing, but aimer mieux is more spoken and préférer more written.
Aimer FAQs
- What does j'aime mean in French?
- I like or I love, depending on what follows. J'aime le café means I like coffee, while j'aime Marie means I love Marie. It is the first-person present of aimer, with je contracted to j' because the verb starts with a vowel.
- How do you conjugate aimer?
- J'aime, tu aimes, il aime, nous aimons, vous aimez, ils aiment. The imperfect is j'aimais, the future j'aimerai, and the past participle aimé, giving j'ai aimé. Nothing in the stem ever changes.
- Why do you need le or les after aimer?
- Because aimer talks about a category rather than a quantity. J'aime le pain means bread in general; there is no partitive reading available. Even in the negative the article stays: je n'aime pas le pain.
- What's the difference between j'aime and j'aimerais?
- J'aime states a taste; j'aimerais makes a polite request or expresses a wish. In a shop or restaurant you always want the conditional: j'aimerais un café, s'il vous plaît.
- Can you say j'aime faire quelque chose?
- Yes, and it is the standard pattern: j'aime lire, j'aime nager, j'aime voyager. Put the infinitive immediately after the verb with no preposition, since French has no -ing form to use here.