Huer Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “huer”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Huer means “to boo” — the noise a crowd makes at a referee, a politician or a singer who is off key. It is a completely regular -er verb, and its one real difficulty is that its h is aspirated, so there is no elision: je hue, never j'hue.
Huer lives in stadiums, theatres and political meetings. It is almost always a crowd doing it, which is why you meet it most often in the third person and in the passive-flavoured se faire huer (to get booed). The related noun is des huées. The verb is worth a page not for its endings, which are as plain as those of parler, but for the h at the front, which behaves the opposite way from the h in humer.
The endings are the standard -er set: je hue, tu hues, il hue, nous huons, vous huez, ils huent. Because the stem ends in a vowel, the imparfait keeps its i and you get a small stack of vowels: nous huions, vous huiez. The future is built on the whole infinitive, so the silent e survives in writing: je huerai, il huera. The real point is the h. It is aspirated (h aspiré), which means it blocks elision and liaison: you write je hue and le huer, not j'hue, and you say les huées with no z sound carried over. Compare humer, which has a mute h and does elide: j'hume.
Huer in context
Présent
Le public hue l'arbitre à chaque décision. The crowd boos the referee after every call.
Imparfait
Les spectateurs huaient dès qu'il touchait le ballon. The spectators booed every time he touched the ball.
Passé composé
Nous l'avons hué à la sortie du stade. We booed him on the way out of the stadium.
Futur simple
Si elle chante faux, la salle la huera. If she sings out of tune, the room will boo her.
Subjonctif présent
Le maire est parti avant que la foule ne le hue. The mayor left before the crowd could boo him.
Common mistakes with huer
Eliding before the aspirated h
✗ J'hue l'arbitre depuis le début du match.
✓ Je hue l'arbitre depuis le début du match. — I've been booing the referee since the start of the match.
The h of huer is aspirated, so it acts like a consonant: no elision and no liaison. You keep je, le and de intact — je hue, le huer, des huées said without a z. This is the mirror image of humer, whose h is mute and where j'hume is correct.
Confusing huer with humer
✗ Le public a humé l'arbitre pendant dix minutes.
✓ Le public a hué l'arbitre pendant dix minutes. — The crowd booed the referee for ten minutes.
The two verbs differ by one letter and behave oppositely. Huer is to boo, with an aspirated h; humer is to breathe in a smell, with a mute h. So the crowd hue (je hue) while the wine taster hume (j'hume).
Losing the i in the imparfait
✗ Quand nous étions au stade, nous huons souvent l'arbitre.
✓ Quand nous étions au stade, nous huions souvent l'arbitre. — When we were at the stadium, we often booed the referee.
Nous huons is the present; the imparfait adds the usual -ions ending to the stem hu-, giving nous huions. Since the stem already ends in a vowel, three vowels end up in a row and the i is easy to drop. The same thing happens with nous jouions and nous continuions.
Expressions with huer
se faire huer
to get booed
des huées
booing, jeers
huer un arbitre
to boo a referee
Frequently asked questions
Is huer a regular verb?
Yes. Huer follows the standard first-group pattern with no stem changes at all: je hue, nous huons, j'ai hué, je huerai. The only spellings worth checking are the imparfait nous huions and vous huiez, where the i of the ending sits next to the u of the stem.
Why do you say je hue and not j'hue?
Because huer begins with an aspirated h, one of the two kinds of h in French. An aspirated h is silent but still blocks elision and liaison, so the pronoun stays whole: je hue, tu hues, le huer. Words like héros, haricot and huit behave the same way.
What is the difference between huer and humer?
Huer means to boo or jeer; humer means to breathe in a smell. They also split on the h: huer takes an aspirated h with no elision (je hue), while humer takes a mute h and does elide (j'hume). One letter of difference, two opposite behaviours — it is worth learning the pair together.
What is the past participle of huer, and which auxiliary does it take?
The participle is hué, and the auxiliary is avoir: j'ai hué, ils ont hué. With avoir the participle does not agree with a following object, so on a hué la ministre stays hué. It agrees only when the direct object comes first: la ministre qu'ils ont huée.
How do you pronounce huer?
The h is completely silent, so the word starts on the u of tu: roughly “ü-AY”. The present form hue is a single syllable that sounds like the u of tu on its own. Nothing in the pronunciation signals the aspirated h; only the absence of elision does, which is why je hue is the form to remember.