How to Conjugate "Embrasser" (to Embrace, to Kiss)

The French verb embrasser means "to embrace" or "to kiss." It's resemblance to English makes it an easy one to remember and it's an essential part of your French "love" vocabulary.

When you want to say "embraced" or "kissing," a verb conjugation is required. A quick French lesson will show you how that's done.

Conjugating the French Verb Embrasser

Embrasser is a regular -ER verb and it follows a very common verb conjugation pattern. The infinitive endings are just like those for similar verbs such as admirer (to admire), adorer (to adore), and countless others. This makes learning each new verb just a little easier than the last.

When conjugating, we must first recognize the verb stem. In the case of embrasser, that is embrass-. To this, the various endings are added to match the present, future, or imperfect past tense. Yet, in French, we must also take into account the subject pronoun. For instance, "I embrace" is "j'embrasse" and "we will kiss" is "nous emrasserons."

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The Present Participle of Embrasser

The present participle of embrasser is formed by adding -ant to the verb stem to give us embrassant. This is rather useful as it is not only a verb, but can act as an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

A common way to express the past tense in French is the passé composé. To construct it, you must conjugate the auxiliary verb avoir to fit the subject pronoun, then attach the past participle embrassé.

For example, "I embraced" is "j'ai embrassé" and "we kissed" is "nous avons embrassé." Notice how the past participle remains the same and that ai and avons are conjugates of avoir.

More Simple Embrasser Conjugations

Among the simplest conjugations of embrasser, French students should focus on the present, future, and past tenses at first. When you're ready, add these verb forms to your vocabulary as well.

When the verb's action has some degree of uncertainty or dependency, use either the subjunctive or the conditional verb mood. In writing, the passé simple or imperfect subjunctive may be used.

​To express embrasser in a direct command or request, the imperative verb form is used. In this case, the subject pronoun is not required. Keep it short and sweet with "embrasse" rather than "tu embrasse.