French grammar · Intermediate
French Verb Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Conditional, Imperative
Mood is what the speaker is doing with the action rather than when it happens. French has four moods with personal endings — indicative for facts, subjunctive for what is wanted or doubted, conditional for hypotheses, imperative for orders — plus the infinitive and the participle, which have no subject at all.
Je sais qu'il vient, mais je doute qu'il reste.
I know he's coming, but I doubt he'll stay.
What it is
Tense answers when. Mood answers what the speaker is claiming: that the thing is so, that they wish it were, that it would be under some condition, or that you had better do it. Every conjugated verb in French belongs to exactly one mood, and for most of them the mood is not a stylistic choice but something the surrounding sentence imposes.
Il vient, il viendrait, qu'il vienne, viens ! — He's coming, he'd come, let him come, come!
How to spot it
Ask what claim is being made. A plain statement is indicative. A wish, doubt or emotion introduced by que is subjunctive. Anything resting on a condition is conditional. A verb with no subject pronoun in front of it is imperative.
- Elle travaille à Lyon. — She works in Lyon.
- Je veux qu'elle travaille davantage. — I want her to work harder.
- Elle travaillerait si on la payait. — She'd work if she were paid.
- Travaille ! — Get to work!
One verb, four moods, and not one of those sentences differs from the others in timing. What differs is the speaker's stance.
Verb Mood Quick Reference
The six moods of French
| Mood | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| L'indicatif | states something as fact | Il pleut. — It's raining. |
| Le subjonctif | wishes, doubt, emotion | Je doute qu'il pleuve. — I doubt it's raining. |
| Le conditionnel | hypotheses and politeness | Je voudrais un café. — I'd like a coffee. |
| L'impératif | orders and advice | Viens ici ! — Come here! |
| L'infinitif | names the action, no subject | Ne pas fumer. — No smoking. |
| Le participe | adjectival or auxiliary use | un livre écrit en 1900 — a book written in 1900 |
Common Verb Mood Examples in French
The four personal moods at work:
The Indicative: Facts
- Nous habitons à Marseille.
- We live in Marseille.
- Il a fini hier soir.
- He finished last night.
- Tu partiras à six heures.
- You'll leave at six.
- Elle lisait quand je suis entré.
- She was reading when I came in.
The indicative carries eight tenses, more than the other three moods put together, and it is the default for anything presented as real.
The Subjunctive: Everything Uncertain
- Il faut que tu viennes.
- You have to come.
- Je suis désolé qu'elle soit malade.
- I'm sorry she's ill.
- Bien qu'il fasse froid, on sort.
- Although it's cold, we're going out.
- Je cherche quelqu'un qui sache coudre.
- I'm looking for someone who can sew.
The subjunctive is almost always triggered by something in front of it — a verb, a fixed expression, a conjunction — rather than chosen freely.
The Conditional: Hypothesis and Politeness
- Je voudrais réserver une table.
- I'd like to book a table.
- Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais.
- If I had the time, I'd come.
- Tu devrais lui parler.
- You ought to talk to her.
- Le président aurait démissionné.
- The president is reported to have resigned.
The last one is the journalistic conditional. The mood alone marks the report as unverified; there is no word in the sentence meaning allegedly.
The Imperative: Orders
- Écoute-moi.
- Listen to me.
- Allons-y !
- Let's go!
- N'oubliez pas vos billets.
- Don't forget your tickets.
- Sois patient.
- Be patient.
Only three persons exist, the subject pronoun disappears, and the tu form of -er verbs loses its s: écoute, not écoutes.
How Moods Fit Together
Five structural facts about the system as a whole.
Mood and Tense Are Separate Axes
A verb form is fixed by two independent choices: which mood, and which tense within that mood. Changing one leaves the other untouched.
Il chantait, il chanterait, qu'il chante.
He was singing, he'd sing, let him sing.
Mood is stance; tense is time.
Each Mood Has Its Own Tenses
The indicative has eight, the subjunctive four, the conditional two, the imperative two. A single sentence can combine tenses from different moods without difficulty.
J'aurais voulu qu'il ait compris.
I'd have liked him to have understood.
Conditional past plus subjunctive past.
The Subjunctive Lives in Subordinate Clauses
Apart from a few frozen wishes like vive la France, it appears only after a trigger, and almost always after que. It is not something you can choose in a main clause.
Je ne pense pas qu'il ait raison.
I don't think he's right.
Look for the trigger in front.
The Imperative Has No Subject
It is the only personal mood that suppresses the pronoun entirely, and it exists in three persons only: tu, nous and vous.
Prenez le train de sept heures.
Take the seven o'clock train.
No pronoun at all.
Two Moods Have No Person
The infinitive and the participle carry no ending for who is acting, which is why traditional grammar calls them impersonal. Something else in the sentence has to supply the subject.
Avant de partir, fermez la porte.
Before leaving, shut the door.
No conjugation, so no person.
Common Mistakes with Verb Mood
Incorrect: J'espère qu'il vienne. — I hope he'll come.
Correct: J'espère qu'il viendra. — I hope he'll come.
Espérer is one of the few verbs of wishing that keeps the indicative. Because souhaiter, vouloir and désirer all take the subjunctive, espérer looks like the exception it is.
Incorrect: Si j'aurais su, je serais resté. — If I'd known, I'd have stayed.
Correct: Si j'avais su, je serais resté. — If I'd known, I'd have stayed.
A si clause never takes the conditional. The condition goes in the indicative — imperfect or pluperfect — and only the result clause is conditional.
Incorrect: Écoutes-moi. — Listen to me.
Correct: Écoute-moi. — Listen to me.
The tu imperative of an -er verb drops the s, unlike the indicative tu écoutes. The s comes back only before y or en, as in vas-y and manges-en.
Incorrect: Il faut que tu es à l'heure. — You have to be on time.
Correct: Il faut que tu sois à l'heure. — You have to be on time.
Il faut que is among the strongest subjunctive triggers in the language, so être becomes sois. No indicative form can follow it.
One Verb Across the Moods
Parler and être laid out mood by mood, so the endings can be compared side by side. A dash marks a form that does not exist.
Indicative, subjunctive, conditional
The present of each. Note how little separates the first two columns for an -er verb.
| Pronoun | indicatif présent | subjonctif présent | conditionnel présent |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | je parle | que je parle | je parlerais |
| tu | tu parles | que tu parles | tu parlerais |
| il / elle / on | il parle | qu'il parle | il parlerait |
| nous | nous parlons | que nous parlions | nous parlerions |
| vous | vous parlez | que vous parliez | vous parleriez |
| ils / elles | ils parlent | qu'ils parlent | ils parleraient |
Four of the six subjunctive forms are identical to the indicative. Only nous and vous show the mood, which is why it slips past so many learners unnoticed.
The imperative and the compound moods
The imperative exists in three persons; the past imperative and the conditional past are both built with an auxiliary.
| Pronoun | impératif | impératif passé | conditionnel passé |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | — | — | j'aurais parlé |
| tu | parle | aie parlé | tu aurais parlé |
| il / elle / on | — | — | il aurait parlé |
| nous | parlons | ayons parlé | nous aurions parlé |
| vous | parlez | ayez parlé | vous auriez parlé |
| ils / elles | — | — | ils auraient parlé |
The past imperative is rare but real: aie fini avant midi means have it finished by noon.
Être across three moods
The most irregular verb in the language, which is also where the relationship between the moods is easiest to see.
| Pronoun | indicatif | subjonctif | impératif |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | je suis | que je sois | — |
| tu | tu es | que tu sois | sois |
| il / elle / on | il est | qu'il soit | — |
| nous | nous sommes | que nous soyons | soyons |
| vous | vous êtes | que vous soyez | soyez |
| ils / elles | ils sont | qu'ils soient | — |
Être and avoir build their imperatives on the subjunctive, which is why sois and soyez resemble the middle column rather than the first.
The Impersonal Moods, and One Disputed Case
Why a French table of moods has six rows, and why grammarians disagree about one of them.
The infinitive and the participle
Two moods take no subject and no personal endings. French grammar counts them as moods on the same footing as the indicative, which is why the standard list runs to six.
- Ne pas se pencher au dehors.
- Do not lean out of the window.
- Étant fatigué, il est rentré.
- Being tired, he went home.
- Il faut manger avant de partir.
- You have to eat before leaving.
Because they cannot mark a person, they are useless for orders addressed to somebody in particular and perfect for instructions addressed to nobody.
Is the conditional a mood or a tense?
Older grammars treat le conditionnel as a mood in its own right. Many modern ones call it a tense of the indicative, since it is built from the future stem with the imperfect endings.
- Il a dit qu'il viendrait.
- He said he'd come.
- Si tu voulais, tu pourrais.
- If you wanted to, you could.
The first sentence is the case for calling it a tense: viendrait is just a future viewed from a point in the past. Nothing about how you use it depends on which label wins.
Moods that survive only in literature
Two subjunctive tenses have dropped out of speech entirely and now appear only in novels, history and formal prose.
- Il fallut qu'il partît sur-le-champ.
- He had to leave at once.
- Bien qu'elle eût compris, elle se taisait.
- Although she had understood, she kept quiet.
Partît is the imperfect subjunctive and eût compris the pluperfect subjunctive. Recognising them when reading is enough; nobody is expected to produce them.
Verb Mood FAQs
- How many moods does French have?
- Six in the traditional count. Four have personal endings — l'indicatif, le subjonctif, le conditionnel and l'impératif — and two do not: l'infinitif and le participe, which are called impersonal because they cannot mark who is acting.
- What is the difference between mood and tense in French?
- Tense places the action in time; mood expresses the speaker's stance towards it. Il venait and il viendra differ in tense but share the indicative mood. Il vient and qu'il vienne share their timing but differ in mood, one being a fact and the other something wanted.
- Is the conditional a mood or a tense?
- Both descriptions are current. Traditional grammar lists it as a mood; modern analyses often treat it as a tense of the indicative, because it is built from the future stem plus the imperfect endings and is used as a future-in-the-past in il a dit qu'il viendrait.
- Which mood do I use after que?
- It depends entirely on the verb in front. Savoir, dire, penser, espérer and voir take the indicative; vouloir, douter, falloir, regretter and être content take the subjunctive, as do conjunctions like bien que, avant que and pour que.
- Which French moods are still used in speech?
- All four personal moods, plus the infinitive and participle. What has disappeared from speech is a handful of tenses inside them: the imperfect subjunctive, the pluperfect subjunctive, and the passé simple, all of which are now confined to writing.