Parer Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “parer”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Parer means to fend something off: a blow in fencing or boxing, a shot in goal, a risk in a plan. With à it means to guard against something in advance. It is a fully regular -er verb whose forms overlap confusingly with paraître.
Parer is a specialist's verb with three separate homes. In combat sports it is technical: parer un coup, parer une attaque. Followed by à, it becomes the language of planning and administration: parer à toute éventualité, parer au plus pressé. In cooking, parer une viande means trimming it. There is also an older, literary sense of adorning (parée de bijoux), which survives mainly in the past participle. The conjugation is easy; the difficulty is knowing which construction goes with which meaning.
Parer conjugates exactly like parler: je pare, nous parons, j'ai paré, je parerai, que je pare, with no stem change anywhere. What deserves attention is how many of its forms collide with other verbs. The imparfait je parais, tu parais, il parait is spelled almost like the present of paraître (je parais, il paraît) and differs from it only by the circumflex in the third person. The imparfait nous parions is identical to the present of parier, “to bet”. Nothing in the conjugation warns you about this, so context does all the work. The participle is paré, taking avoir.
Parer in context
Présent
En escrime, on pare le coup avec la lame, pas avec la main. In fencing, you parry the blow with the blade, not with your hand.
Imparfait
Les gardes paraient les coups avec leurs boucliers. The guards were blocking the blows with their shields.
Passé composé
Le gardien a paré le tir du bout des doigts. The goalkeeper got his fingertips to the shot.
Futur simple
Avec deux devis de plus, nous parerons à toute éventualité. With two more quotes, we'll be covered whatever happens.
Subjonctif présent
Il faut que tu pares le coup avant qu'il t'atteigne. You need to block the blow before it reaches you.
Common mistakes with parer
Confusing parer with paraître
✗ Elle pare fatiguée ce matin.
✓ Elle paraît fatiguée ce matin. — She looks tired this morning.
Parer means to ward something off; paraître means to seem. Their forms sit uncomfortably close: the imparfait of parer is il parait, while the present of paraître is il paraît, separated only by a circumflex. If the sentence is about appearance, you want paraître or avoir l'air.
Dropping the à in parer à
✗ Nous parerons toute éventualité.
✓ Nous parerons à toute éventualité. — We'll be ready for anything.
The two constructions mean different things. Parer plus a direct object is physical: you deflect a blow that is arriving now. Parer à plus a noun is anticipatory: you take measures against something that might happen. Without the à, parer à toute éventualité stops making sense.
Reading parer as English “prepare”
✗ Je pare le dîner pour huit personnes.
✓ Je prépare le dîner pour huit personnes. — I'm making dinner for eight people.
Parer is not a shortened préparer. The two verbs are unrelated in use: préparer is the everyday “to get ready”, while parer means to deflect, or in a kitchen to trim a piece of meat before cooking it. The adjective paré does mean “ready”, but only in the sense of being braced against something: être paré contre le froid.
Expressions with parer
parer à toute éventualité
to be ready for anything
parer au plus pressé
to deal with the most urgent thing first
parer un coup
to parry a blow
être paré contre le froid
to be well protected against the cold
Frequently asked questions
Is parer a regular verb?
Yes. Parer is a first-group verb with no stem change and no spelling quirks: je pare, nous parons, vous parez, j'ai paré, je parerai. If you can conjugate parler, you can conjugate parer. The difficulty with this verb is never the endings — it is choosing between parer and parer à.
What does parer à mean?
It means to take precautions against something in advance. Parer à toute éventualité is to cover every possibility; parer à une pénurie is to guard against a shortage. Compare it with parer plus a direct object, which is immediate and physical: parer un coup is to deflect a blow as it comes.
What is the difference between parer and paraître?
They are unrelated verbs that happen to share several spellings. Parer is to parry or ward off; paraître is to seem or to appear, and also to be published (le livre paraît en mai). The overlap is real: il parait is the imparfait of parer, while il paraît with the circumflex is the present of paraître.
What is the past participle of parer?
Paré, with avoir as the auxiliary: il a paré le coup. Paré is also used as an adjective in two senses — braced or equipped against something (paré contre la pluie), and, in older or literary French, adorned (une salle parée de fleurs). The noun from the verb is une parade.
Where is parer actually used today?
Mostly in three settings: combat sports and self-defence, where it is the standard term; football commentary, for a save; and formal or administrative writing, in the parer à construction. Outside those, French speakers use éviter, empêcher or se préparer. The cooking sense, parer une viande, is professional kitchen vocabulary.