Humer Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “humer”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Humer means to breathe something in on purpose in order to smell it: coffee, sea air, the cork of a bottle. It is a regular -er verb, and unlike its near-twin huer, its h is mute, so it elides: j'hume.
Humer is the verb of the person doing the smelling, not of the thing that smells. It belongs to descriptive writing, cooking and wine talk: on hume un plat, on hume l'air du matin. In everyday speech, French speakers more often say sentir or respirer, so humer sounds a little chosen, a little literary — which is exactly why it shows up in food writing and novels. It is also one half of a pair worth learning together with huer, which is spelled almost identically and behaves in the opposite way.
There are no surprises in the endings: j'hume, tu humes, il hume, nous humons, vous humez, ils hument, with the imparfait keeping its i in nous humions and vous humiez. The future builds on the infinitive: j'humerai. The point of interest is the h, which is mute (h muet). A mute h is invisible to the grammar, so elision and liaison go straight through it: j'hume, il l'hume, nous humons said with a liaison. Compare huer, whose h is aspirated and blocks both: je hue, not j'hue. Nothing in the spelling tells you which kind of h a word has, so the elision in the table is your evidence.
Humer in context
Présent
J'hume l'odeur du pain chaud en passant devant la boulangerie. I breathe in the smell of warm bread as I walk past the bakery.
Imparfait
Elle humait son café un long moment avant d'en boire une goutte. She would smell her coffee for a while before drinking a drop of it.
Passé composé
Ils ont humé l'air marin en descendant du train. They breathed in the sea air as they got off the train.
Futur simple
Tu humeras l'odeur des pins dès que tu ouvriras la fenêtre. You'll smell the pine trees as soon as you open the window.
Subjonctif présent
Le chef veut que nous humions la sauce avant de la goûter. The chef wants us to smell the sauce before tasting it.
Common mistakes with humer
Failing to elide before the mute h
✗ Je hume l'odeur du café.
✓ J'hume l'odeur du café. — I breathe in the smell of the coffee.
The h of humer is mute, so the vowel of je disappears exactly as it does before a vowel: j'hume, il l'hume. Learners who have just been taught that French has silent h sometimes over-apply the aspirated rule. Huer is the verb where that rule applies; humer is not.
Confusing humer with huer
✗ Le public a humé le ministre pendant son discours.
✓ Le public a hué le ministre pendant son discours. — The crowd booed the minister during his speech.
Humer is to breathe in a smell; huer is to boo. They differ by one letter and by the kind of h they carry: humer has a mute h and elides (j'hume), huer has an aspirated h and does not (je hue). Learning them as a pair is the fastest way to keep them apart.
Using humer for the thing that gives off the smell
✗ Cette fleur hume bon.
✓ Cette fleur sent bon. — This flower smells nice.
Humer describes an action performed by whoever is inhaling, and it needs a direct object: on hume une odeur, un parfum, l'air. To say that something gives off a smell, French uses sentir: ça sent bon, ça sent le brûlé.
Expressions with humer
humer l'air
to breathe in the air
humer le parfum d'un vin
to smell a wine's bouquet
Frequently asked questions
Is humer a regular verb?
Yes, entirely. Humer takes the standard first-group endings with no stem change: j'hume, nous humons, j'ai humé, j'humerai. The only forms worth a second look are the imparfait nous humions and vous humiez, where the ending's i follows the stem directly.
Why is it j'hume and not je hume?
Because humer starts with a mute h. A mute h is ignored by French grammar, so elision happens as if the word began with a vowel: j'hume, l'humer, il l'hume. Words like heure, homme and hôtel work the same way. Aspirated h words such as huer, héros and haricot block elision instead.
What is the difference between humer, sentir and respirer?
Sentir covers both directions: je sens le pain (I smell it) and ça sent le pain (it gives off that smell). Respirer is simply to breathe. Humer is narrower than either: it means to draw air in specifically to smell something, deliberately and usually with pleasure. That is why it belongs in food and wine writing.
What is the past participle of humer, and which auxiliary does it take?
The participle is humé and the auxiliary is avoir: j'ai humé, ils ont humé. As always with avoir, the participle does not agree with an object that follows it, so elle a humé les roses stays humé. It agrees only if the direct object comes first: les roses qu'elle a humées.
How do you pronounce humer?
Roughly “ü-MAY”, starting on the u sound of tu with no h at all, and the -er ending pronounced like the é of café. The present hume is one syllable, “üm”. Because the h is mute, you will also hear a liaison in phrases like nous humons, which sounds like “nou-zü-mon”.