But first, a chart: the simple tense or mood on the left is used to conjugate the auxiliary verb for the compound tense or mood on the right, as demonstrated with the verb avoir (to have).
| Simple | Compound | ||
| Present tu as (you have) |
Passé composé tu as eu (you have had) |
||
| Imperfect tu avais (you were having) |
Pluperfect tu avais eu (you had had) |
||
| Passé simple tu eus (you had) |
Past anterior tu eus eu (you had had) |
||
| Future tu auras (you will have) |
Future perfect tu auras eu (you will have had) |
||
| Conditional tu aurais (you would have) |
Conditional perfect tu aurais eu (you would have had) |
||
| Subjunctive tu aies (you have) |
Past subjunctive tu aies eu (you had) |
||
| Imperfect subjunctive tu eusses (you were having) |
Pluperfect subjunctive tu eusses eu (you had had) |
||
| Imperative (tu) aie ([you] have) |
Past imperative (tu) aie eu ([you] have had) |
||
| Present participle ayant (having) |
Perfect participle ayant eu (having had) |
||
| Infinitive avoir (to have) |
Past infinitive avoir eu (to have had) |
||
| Please note that I have provided (English translations) to give you an idea about the differences in meaning, but there may be other possibilities. For detailed information about each tense and mood, click the links to read the lesson. You might also find this lesson helpful: Translating French verbs into English. | |||
| See other French verbs conjugated into all the tenses and moods: | |||
| Simple | Compound | ||
| aller | aller | ||
| avoir | avoir | ||
| être | être | ||
| prendre | prendre | ||
Go on to page 2 to learn about agreement, negation, and word order with compound tenses and moods.
For more information about how all the different French tenses and moods fit together, take a look at my French verb timeline.
