French guides · Verb tables + audio
Dire: to say — and the famous vous dites.
Dire means “to say” or “to tell”, and it holds one of the best-known irregularities in French. Nearly every verb in the language ends its vous form in -ez. Three do not, and this is one of them: vous dites. Say vous disez and every French speaker in the room will notice.
Présent — and the exception
The stem is di- in the singular and dis- in the plural, which is ordinary enough. The vous form is not.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dis | I say | |
| tu dis | you say | |
| il / elle dit | he / she says | |
| nous disons | we say | |
| vous dites | you say | |
| ils / elles disent | they say |
Vous êtes, vous faites, vous dites. That is the complete list in the whole language — every other verb, regular or irregular, ends vous in -ez. Worth learning as a set of three rather than three separate facts.
Redire (to say again) keeps vous redites, but the others go regular: it is vous interdisez, vous prédisez, vous contredisez — with the -ez restored. The exception is narrower than it looks.
Saying and telling
English separates “say” and “tell” by grammar — you say something, you tell someone. French uses one verb and marks the person with à.
| French | Literally | Means |
|---|---|---|
| je dis la vérité | I say the truth | I’m telling the truth |
| je lui dis | I say to him/her | I tell him/her |
| dis-moi | say to me | tell me |
| il m’a dit de partir | he said to me to leave | he told me to leave |
| ça veut dire quoi ? | that wants to say what? | what does that mean? |
| ça te dit ? | does that say to you? | fancy it? |
Dire à quelqu’un de faire quelque chose — to tell somebody to do something. Both little words matter: à before the person, de before the action. J’ai dit à Marie de venir.
And vouloir dire — literally “to want to say” — is simply how French says “to mean”. There is no other everyday verb for it: qu’est-ce que ça veut dire ?
Passé composé — dit
With avoir, participle dit — the same three letters as the il form of the présent, and pronounced the same way.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai dit | I said / have said | |
| tu as dit | you said / have said | |
| il / elle a dit | he / she said / have said | |
| nous avons dit | we said / have said | |
| vous avez dit | you said / have said | |
| ils / elles ont dit | they said / have said |
Imparfait — regular
From disons, with no surprises: je disais. The vous irregularity does not reach this tense — it is vous disiez, entirely regular.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je disais | I used to say / was saying | |
| tu disais | you used to say / was saying | |
| il / elle disait | he / she used to say / was saying | |
| nous disions | we used to say / was saying | |
| vous disiez | you used to say / was saying | |
| ils / elles disaient | they used to say / was saying |
Futur and conditionnel — dir-
The infinitive minus its e, so dir-. And here the vous form behaves itself: vous direz.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dirai | I will say | |
| tu diras | you will say | |
| il / elle dira | he / she will say | |
| nous dirons | we will say | |
| vous direz | you will say | |
| ils / elles diront | they will say |
Conditionnel — would say
Je dirais. Very common as a hedge — je dirais que…, “I’d say that…” — and as an invitation: ça te dirait d’aller au cinéma ?
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dirais | I would say | |
| tu dirais | you would say | |
| il / elle dirait | he / she would say | |
| nous dirions | we would say | |
| vous diriez | you would say | |
| ils / elles diraient | they would say |
Subjonctif — dise
Regular from the plural stem, and the vous form is normal here too: que vous disiez.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dise | (that) I say | |
| tu dises | (that) you say | |
| il / elle dise | (that) he / she say | |
| nous disions | (that) we say | |
| vous disiez | (that) you say | |
| ils / elles disent | (that) they say |
Impératif — where dites comes back
The imperative is taken from the présent, so the irregular form survives: dites !, not disez. Dites-moi is the polite “tell me”, and dis donc ! is an all-purpose “hey!” or “well I never”, depending entirely on tone.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| dis ! | say! (to one person you know) | |
| disons ! | let’s say! | |
| dites ! | say! (formal, or to a group) |
Plus-que-parfait — had said
Je t’avais dit — “I’d told you” — which in practice is almost always followed by the French for “so”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’avais dit | I had said | |
| tu avais dit | you had said | |
| il / elle avait dit | he / she had said | |
| nous avions dit | we had said | |
| vous aviez dit | you had said | |
| ils / elles avaient dit | they had said |
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Dire, answered.
The questions that come up while you are learning the table.