Caler Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “caler”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Caler covers three everyday things: an engine stalling, an object being wedged so it stops moving, and food filling you up. The conjugation is regular; the work is in the meanings.
The sense you meet first is mechanical: ma voiture a calé means my car stalled, and it is what happens to everyone learning to drive a manual in France. The second is physical: caler une étagère, caler la porte avec un livre, to steady something with a wedge or a shim. The third is informal and about food: ce plat cale bien, that dish really fills you up. Around those sit two more uses worth recognising — caler on its own can mean to give up partway through something, and the adjective calé means well up on a subject.
Caler is a fully regular first-group verb: one stem, cal-, one l, and the ordinary -er endings in every tense (je cale, nous calons, je calais, je calerai, que je cale). Nothing doubles and no accent is ever added, so if you can conjugate parler you already have this one. As with all -er verbs, cale, cales and calent are pronounced identically, so the ending you write is decided by the subject alone. The past participle is calé, which also works as an adjective: une étagère calée, il est calé en physique.
Caler takes avoir in all its senses, including the stalling one: la voiture a calé, j'ai calé au feu rouge. The reflexive se caler, as in se caler dans un fauteuil, takes être like every reflexive verb: je me suis calé au fond du canapé.
Caler in context
Présent
Ma voiture cale à chaque démarrage en côte. My car stalls every time I pull away on a hill.
Imparfait
Au début, je calais dès que le feu passait au vert. At first I stalled the moment the light turned green.
Passé composé
Nous avons calé l'armoire avec un morceau de carton. We wedged the wardrobe steady with a piece of cardboard.
Futur simple
Ce plat te calera jusqu'au soir. This dish will keep you full until the evening.
Subjonctif présent
Il faut que tu cales la porte, sinon elle claque. You need to wedge the door, otherwise it slams.
Common mistakes with caler
Using être for a stalled engine
✗ Ma voiture est calée au feu rouge.
✓ Ma voiture a calé au feu rouge. — My car stalled at the red light.
Caler takes avoir, so a calé is what reports the event. Est calée is the participle used as an adjective, which gives a completely different picture: a car propped up on a wedge so it cannot roll.
Doubling the l
✗ Nous callons la table avec un livre.
✓ Nous calons la table avec un livre. — We're steadying the table with a book.
There is a single l in the stem and no doubling rule applies. The English verbs that come to mind, “call” and “stall,” both have two, which is where the extra letter comes from. Compare parler, which never becomes parller.
Using avoir with the reflexive
✗ Je m'ai calé dans le canapé.
✓ Je me suis calé dans le canapé. — I settled into the sofa.
Reflexive verbs always take être in compound tenses, and the participle agrees with the subject: elle s'est calée, ils se sont calés. The plain verb still takes avoir, which is why the two auxiliaries sit side by side on this page.
Expressions with caler
être calé en maths
to be good at maths
ça cale bien
that's filling
se caler dans un fauteuil
to settle into an armchair
Frequently asked questions
Is caler a regular verb?
Yes. It belongs to the first group and keeps the stem cal- with no changes at all: je cale, nous calons, je calais, je calerai, que je cale. There is no consonant doubling and no accent, so every form is predictable from parler.
What does caler mean when you are talking about a car?
It means to stall: the engine cuts out because the clutch came up too fast or the revs dropped too low. J'ai calé is what you say after it happens, and le moteur a calé names the engine explicitly. Since most rental and driving-school cars in France are manual, it is a genuinely useful verb.
What does “ça cale” mean about food?
That the dish is filling and will keep hunger away for a while: une raclette, ça cale. It is informal but very common, and the same idea appears as je suis calé, meaning I've had plenty. The opposite complaint is ça ne cale pas, said of a meal that leaves you hungry an hour later.
What does “être calé en maths” mean?
It means being strong in a subject, roughly “to know your stuff.” Here calé is an adjective rather than a verb form, and it agrees: elle est calée en physique. The image behind it is of knowledge that is solidly wedged in place.
What is the past participle of caler and how is it pronounced?
The participle is calé, pronounced ka-lé with the closed é of the -er infinitive. In the passé composé it usually stays invariable in the stalling sense (la voiture a calé), and it agrees like an adjective when it describes a state: les pieds calés, une étagère calée.