Lire Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “lire”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Lire means “to read.” It is a third-group verb with two present-tense stems, and its past participle is lu, which is what most learners come to this table to check.
Lire turns up from the first weeks of French: reading a menu, a text message, a street sign, a book. It is also the verb you need to talk about your own learning, because “I read French better than I speak it” is a sentence you will want early. The conjugation is short and irregular enough that guessing usually goes wrong, and the same pattern carries over to élire and relire.
The irregularity is a stem split. In the singular present the stem is li-: je lis, tu lis, il lit. From nous onwards an s appears and the stem becomes lis-: nous lisons, vous lisez, ils lisent. That lis- stem is the one the imparfait, the subjunctive and the present participle are all built on (je lisais, que je lise, lisant), so once you have it you have most of the table. The future and conditional go back to the infinitive minus its e: je lirai, je lirais. The past participle is lu, a single sound, and the passé simple you meet in novels is il lut.
Lire in context
Présent
Elle lit le journal tous les matins dans le train. She reads the paper every morning on the train.
Imparfait
Quand nous étions enfants, nous lisions des bandes dessinées pendant des heures. When we were children, we'd read comics for hours.
Passé composé
J'ai lu ce roman en une semaine. I read that novel in a week.
Futur simple
Tu liras le contrat avant de signer. You'll read the contract before you sign.
Subjonctif présent
Il faut que vous lisiez la notice avant de prendre ce médicament. You need to read the leaflet before taking this medicine.
Common mistakes with lire
Using the present-tense form as a past participle
✗ J'ai lit ton message.
✓ J'ai lu ton message. — I read your message.
The past participle of lire is lu, not lit. Lit is the third-person present (il lit) and also the noun for a bed, so the wrong version reads oddly to a French speaker. Every compound tense uses lu: j'avais lu, j'aurai lu.
Treating lire like a regular -re verb in the plural
✗ Nous lions le journal ensemble le dimanche.
✓ Nous lisons le journal ensemble le dimanche. — We read the paper together on Sundays.
Chopping -re off the infinitive and adding endings gives nous lions, which is a form of lier (to tie) and also the plural of lion. The plural stem of lire has an s in it: nous lisons, vous lisez, ils lisent.
Writing the indicative after il faut que
✗ Il faut que je lis ce rapport ce soir.
✓ Il faut que je lise ce rapport ce soir. — I have to read this report tonight.
Il faut que triggers the subjunctive, and lire's subjunctive is built on the lis- stem: que je lise, que tu lises, que nous lisions. The singular forms sound different from the indicative (lise, not lis), so this one is audible as well as visible.
Expressions with lire
lire entre les lignes
to read between the lines
lire à haute voix
to read aloud
lire dans les pensées de quelqu'un
to read someone's mind
lire un livre d'une traite
to read a book in one sitting
Frequently asked questions
Is lire a regular verb?
No, lire belongs to the third group. Its present tense has two stems: li- in the singular (je lis, tu lis, il lit) and lis- from nous onwards (nous lisons, vous lisez, ils lisent). The past participle lu is also unpredictable from the infinitive, so the verb has to be learned rather than derived.
What is the past participle of lire?
It is lu, so the passé composé is j'ai lu. It rhymes with vu and bu, and it is invariable after avoir unless a direct object comes first, in which case it agrees: les lettres que j'ai lues. Learners who write j'ai lit are borrowing the present-tense form by mistake.
Does lire take avoir or être in the passé composé?
Avoir: j'ai lu, tu as lu, nous avons lu. Lire is a plain transitive verb, so it is nowhere near the small list of movement and change-of-state verbs that take être. The only time être appears is in the passive, as in ce livre est lu partout.
How do you say “I am reading” in French?
Just je lis. French has no separate continuous tense, so the present covers both “I read” and “I am reading,” and context does the work. If you want to insist that it is happening right now, add être en train de: je suis en train de lire.
How do you pronounce je lis, il lit and lu?
Je lis and il lit sound exactly the same, roughly “lee” — the final s and t are silent. Lu is different: the u is the tight rounded vowel of tu, not the “oo” of English. In nous lisons and vous lisez you do pronounce the s, as a z sound.