Learn How to Conjugate "Reposer" (to Rest) in French

Meaning "to rest," the French reposer will be a useful addition to your vocabulary. The verb will need to be conjugated, however, if you want to say things such as "rested" or "resting." This lesson will introduce you to the essential conjugations you'll need for reposer.

The Basic Conjugations of Reposer

Reposer is a regular -er verb, which means it follows the conjugation pattern of the majority of French verbs. If you have studied words like tomber (to fall), poser (to put), or any other regular verb that ends in -er, this lesson should be relatively easy.

The indicative mood is the best place to begin. This includes the basic present, future, and imperfect past tenses which are used most often in French. The catch is that you need to memorize a new word for every subject pronoun within each tense. 

Step one in any conjugation is identifying the verb stem (or radical). For reposer, that is repos-. To this, a variety of endings are added that correspond to the subject and the tense. Using the chart, you can find which endings are required. For example, "I am resting" is je repose while "we will rest" is nous reposerons.

The Present Participle of Reposer

The present participle of regular -er verbs is very easy to form. All you have to do is add -ant to the radical. For reposer, that produces the word reposant.

Reposer in the Compound Past Tense

Passé composé is the French compound past tense and it's used frequently, so it's very good to know. Forming it is rather easy as well.

Begin by conjugating the auxiliary verb avoir into the present tense to match the subject. You'll then follow that with the past participle reposé, which does not change with the subject but does indicate that someone has already rested. For example, "I rested" is j'ai reposé and "we rested" is nous avons reposé.

More Simple Conjugations of Reposer

When you're uncertain if the act of resting will take place, you can turn to either the subjunctive or the conditional. The main difference here is that the conditional says the resting will only happen if something else occurs as well.

The passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are literary tenses. You'll find these almost exclusively in formal writing.

If you want to tell someone to "Rest!" or use reposer in a similarly assertive statement, the French imperative can be used. This is one of those rare times when you don't need the subject pronoun, so simplify it from tu repose to repose.