Secouer Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “secouer”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Secouer means “to shake,” whether that is a bottle, a rug or a person who needs waking up. It is a regular -er verb, but its stem ends in -ou, which piles vowels up in several forms and hides a silent e in the future.
You will meet secouer on packaging before you meet it in conversation: bien secouer avant emploi is printed on half the bottles in a French supermarket. Beyond that it covers wind shaking the shutters, shaking your head, and figuratively shaking someone out of their inertia (ça l'a secoué). The conjugation holds no stem changes at all, so the value of this table is in the spelling: secouerai, secouions and secouiez are the three forms worth looking at twice.
Secouer is a fully regular first-group verb built on the stem secou-, so every ending is the standard one: je secoue, tu secoues, il secoue, nous secouons, vous secouez, ils secouent. The four forms secoue, secoues and secouent are all pronounced the same. Because the stem already ends in a vowel, the future and conditional keep a written but silent e: je secouerai, je secouerais. In the imparfait and the subjunctive, nous and vous add an i that gives the odd-looking nous secouions and vous secouiez. The past participle is secoué.
Secouer in context
Présent
Elle secoue la bouteille avant de servir le jus. She shakes the bottle before pouring the juice.
Imparfait
Le vent secouait les volets toute la nuit. The wind rattled the shutters all night.
Passé composé
J'ai secoué le tapis sur le balcon. I shook the rug out on the balcony.
Futur simple
Tu secoueras la salade dans le panier pour l'égoutter. You'll shake the salad in the spinner to drain it.
Subjonctif présent
Il faut que vous secouiez bien le flacon avant chaque usage. You need to shake the bottle well before each use.
Common mistakes with secouer
Dropping the silent e in the future
✗ Je secourai la bouteille avant de la servir.
✓ Je secouerai la bouteille avant de la servir. — I'll shake the bottle before serving it.
The future is built on the whole infinitive, so secouer + ai gives secouerai, with an e you write but never say. Worse, the shortened spelling is already taken: je secourrai belongs to secourir, to rescue, and je secourai looks like a misspelling of it.
Using the present form after il faut que nous
✗ Il faut que nous secouons la nappe.
✓ Il faut que nous secouions la nappe. — We need to shake out the tablecloth.
For -er verbs the subjunctive is identical to the present in the singular, which lulls people into assuming it is identical everywhere. It is not: nous and vous take -ions and -iez, giving nous secouions and vous secouiez, the same shapes as the imparfait.
Using secouer for shaking hands
✗ Il a secoué ma main pour me saluer.
✓ Il m'a serré la main pour me saluer. — He shook my hand to say hello.
French squeezes rather than shakes: the fixed expression is serrer la main à quelqu'un, with the person as an indirect object, which is why it comes out as il m'a serré la main. Secouer la main describes waving a hand about, not greeting someone.
Expressions with secouer
bien secouer avant emploi
shake well before use
secouer la tête
to shake your head
se secouer
to pull yourself together, to get moving
secouer les puces à quelqu'un
to give someone a talking-to (informal)
Frequently asked questions
Is secouer a regular verb?
Yes, it is a regular first-group -er verb with no stem changes. Everything is the stem secou- plus a standard ending, and the past participle is secoué. The only things to watch are spellings rather than irregularities: the silent e in je secouerai and the i in nous secouions.
What is the past participle of secouer?
Secoué, giving j'ai secoué. It takes avoir, and it agrees when a direct object comes before it: la bouteille que j'ai secouée. Used as an adjective it means shaken in the emotional sense too, as in elle était encore secouée par la nouvelle.
Why is there an e in je secouerai?
Because the future and conditional of -er verbs are built on the complete infinitive plus an ending, and secouer ends in -er. The e is written but not pronounced, so je secouerai sounds like two clear syllables plus the ending. The same silent e shows up in je jouerai and je louerai.
What is the difference between secouer and secourir?
They are unrelated despite looking similar. Secouer is to shake; secourir is to come to someone's aid, and it conjugates like courir (je secours, j'ai secouru, je secourrai). Mixing them up mainly happens in the future, where secouerai and secourrai are one letter apart in sound and two in spelling.
How do you say “shake hands” in French?
Serrer la main à quelqu'un, literally to squeeze someone's hand: je lui ai serré la main. The noun is une poignée de main. Secouer is not used for greetings, though you will hear secouer la main for waving a hand about.