Procrastiner Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “procrastiner”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Procrastiner means “to procrastinate”: to put off what you should be doing. It is a regular -er verb, and unlike its English cousin it is intransitive — you procrastinate, but you do not procrastinate something.
Procrastiner is a recent arrival in everyday French. The noun la procrastination has been around in learned writing for a long time, but the verb spread through productivity blogs, student slang and self-help vocabulary, and it is now completely ordinary in speech and online. Everyday alternatives still dominate in older registers: remettre à plus tard, traîner, lambiner. For a learner, procrastiner is a gift — it is transparent from English and perfectly regular, so it costs almost nothing to add.
There is nothing irregular to learn: je procrastine, tu procrastines, il procrastine, nous procrastinons, vous procrastinez, ils procrastinent. The imparfait is je procrastinais, the future je procrastinerai, the subjunctive que je procrastine, and the participle procrastiné with avoir. The only real trap is spelling. There is an r in the second syllable — procrastiner, not procastiner — and a single s and single t, unlike some English spellings people half-remember. Note also that the verb takes no object, so the compound tenses stay short: j'ai procrastiné, full stop.
Procrastiner in context
Présent
Je procrastine dès que le travail devient ennuyeux. I start procrastinating as soon as the work gets boring.
Imparfait
Elle procrastinait tellement qu'elle rendait tout à la dernière minute. She procrastinated so much that she handed everything in at the last minute.
Passé composé
Nous avons procrastiné toute la semaine et le dossier n'est pas prêt. We put things off all week and the file isn't ready.
Futur simple
Tu procrastineras moins si tu coupes les notifications. You'll procrastinate less if you turn off notifications.
Subjonctif présent
Bien qu'ils procrastinent souvent, ils rendent toujours à l'heure. Even though they often put things off, they always deliver on time.
Common mistakes with procrastiner
Giving procrastiner a direct object
✗ Je procrastine mes devoirs depuis trois jours.
✓ Je remets mes devoirs à plus tard depuis trois jours. — I've been putting my homework off for three days.
English allows “I procrastinate my homework”, but in French procrastiner is intransitive: it describes your behaviour, with no object. To name what is being delayed, use remettre quelque chose à plus tard, or repousser: je repousse ce dossier depuis lundi.
Making the verb reflexive
✗ Je me procrastine tout le temps.
✓ Je procrastine tout le temps. — I procrastinate all the time.
There is no reflexive form. Learners add me by analogy with verbs of personal behaviour like se plaindre or s'énerver, but procrastiner works like travailler: the subject simply does it. Se procrastiner is not used by French speakers.
Dropping the r in the middle
✗ J'ai procastiné toute la matinée.
✓ J'ai procrastiné toute la matinée. — I procrastinated all morning.
The word is built on the Latin cras, “tomorrow”, which is where the -cras- comes from. Both r sounds are pronounced: pro-cras-ti-ner. Losing the second r is the single most common spelling error, and it happens in English too.
Expressions with procrastiner
la procrastination
procrastination
remettre au lendemain
to put off until tomorrow
remettre à plus tard
to put off until later
Frequently asked questions
Is procrastiner a regular verb?
Yes, entirely regular. It follows the first-group model with an unchanging stem: je procrastine, nous procrastinons, j'ai procrastiné, je procrastinerai, que je procrastine. There are no accent shifts and no softening rules, so once you can spell the infinitive the whole table follows automatically.
Is procrastiner real French or an anglicism?
It is real French, listed in standard dictionaries, and built from Latin rather than borrowed from English. The noun procrastination is much older than the verb in French usage; the verb itself became common only in recent decades, largely through writing about work and study habits. Nobody will find it odd today.
How do you say “stop procrastinating” in French?
Arrête de procrastiner, or arrêtez de procrastiner in the polite form. Cesse de procrastiner is more formal. You can also use the everyday alternatives: arrête de tout remettre à plus tard, or ne remets pas ça à demain. The imperative procrastine pas exists in casual speech but sounds odd in writing.
What is the past participle of procrastiner?
Procrastiné, used with avoir: j'ai procrastiné, nous avons procrastiné. Since the verb takes no direct object, the participle never agrees, so it stays procrastiné no matter who the subject is. The related noun is la procrastination, and a person who does it is un procrastinateur or une procrastinatrice.
How do you pronounce procrastiner?
Four syllables, roughly “pro-kras-tee-NAY”, with the stress on the last one and both r sounds pronounced in the throat. The -er ending sounds like the é of café. In je procrastine the final -e is silent, so the word ends on the n: “pro-kras-TEEN”.