Learn the Conjugations for "Rêver" (to Dream) in French

When you want to say "she is dreaming" or "we dreamed" in French, you'll use the verb rêver. It's a simple word to commit to memory, though you'll also need to know its conjugations in order to place it into the present or past tense. A quick lesson will introduce you to the essential forms of rêver you'll need.

The Basic Conjugations of Rêver

Rêver is a regular -er verb, which means that it's among the easiest French verb conjugations you'll find. This group contains the majority of the language's verbs and applies the same endings to each verb stem. That makes each new word you study just a little easier than the previous one.

The stem (or radical) of rêver is rêv-. Knowing that, you can then use the chart to learn which ending needs to be applied to fit both the subject pronoun and the tense of your sentence. As an example, je rêve means "I am dreaming" and nous rêverons means "we will dream."

The Present Participle of Rêver

Like all regular verbs, rêver's present participle is formed with an -ant ending. This produces the word rêvant, which may also become a noun or adjective in some situations.

Rêver in the Compound Past Tense

The passé composé is a common compound past tense that uses the past participle rêvé to indicate that the act of dreaming has already happened. To form it, you will also need the auxiliary verb avoir, which needs to be conjugated into the subject's present tense. This will result in short phrases such as j'ai rêvé for "I dreamt" and nous avons rêvé for "we dreamt."

More Simple Conjugations of Rêver

Among the other simple conjugations you'll want to memorize for rêver are the subjunctive and the conditional. The former says the dreaming may or may not happen while the latter says it's dependent on something else.

If you do much reading or writing in French, the passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are definitely good to know. These are formal literary tenses that you'll want to at least be able to recognize.

The French imperative is where all formality is dropped because it's for quick and direct expressions. You also get to drop the subject pronoun when using it. Instead of tu rêve, you can simplify it to rêve.