French guides · Verb tables + audio
Ouvrir: an -ir verb that behaves like an -er verb.
Ouvrir means “to open”, and it is the best example in French of why the three verb families are a rough guide rather than a law. It ends in -ir, so it should take -is, -is, -it in the present. It does not. It takes -e, -es, -e, exactly like parler. Then, having been easy all the way through, it produces a past participle nothing predicts: ouvert.
Présent — -er endings on an -ir verb
The stem is ouvr- throughout — no changes, no boot — and the endings are the -er set. If you can conjugate parler, you can already conjugate this.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvre | I open | |
| tu ouvres | you open | |
| il / elle ouvre | he / she opens | |
| nous ouvrons | we open | |
| vous ouvrez | you open | |
| ils / elles ouvrent | they open |
Ouvrir, couvrir (to cover), découvrir (to discover), offrir (to offer, to give as a gift) and souffrir (to suffer). All -ir verbs, all taking -er endings in the présent, and all with a participle in -ert.
The finir pattern would give j’ouvris — and that form does exist, but it is the passé simple, a literary past tense. In speech it is j’ouvre.
Opening, offering and one false friend
The family is worth meeting together, because one of them means something learners consistently guess wrong.
| French | Means | |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvre la porte | I open the door | |
| ça ouvre à neuf heures | it opens at nine | shops, museums |
| je t’offre un café | the coffee’s on me | not “I offer you” — it means to treat |
| offrir un cadeau | to give a present | donner is neutral; offrir is a gift |
| j’ai découvert que… | I found out that… |
It normally means to give as a present, or to pay for something for somebody. Je t’offre un verre is “I’ll get you a drink”, not a proposal. For the English sense of offering — putting a suggestion on the table — French uses proposer.
Passé composé — ouvert
Here is the irregularity. With avoir, the participle is ouvert — not ouvri, which is what the rest of the verb would lead you to expect. The whole family matches: couvert, découvert, offert, souffert.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai ouvert | I opened / have opened | |
| tu as ouvert | you opened / have opened | |
| il / elle a ouvert | he / she opened / have opened | |
| nous avons ouvert | we opened / have opened | |
| vous avez ouvert | you opened / have opened | |
| ils / elles ont ouvert | they opened / have opened |
Ouvert is also the word on the shop door, and it agrees like any adjective: la porte est ouverte, les magasins sont ouverts. The opposite is fermé.
Imparfait — regular
From ouvrons: j’ouvrais. Nothing unusual.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvrais | I used to open / was opening | |
| tu ouvrais | you used to open / was opening | |
| il / elle ouvrait | he / she used to open / was opening | |
| nous ouvrions | we used to open / was opening | |
| vous ouvriez | you used to open / was opening | |
| ils / elles ouvraient | they used to open / was opening |
Futur and conditionnel — the full infinitive
Unlike -re verbs, nothing is dropped: the stem is the whole infinitive, ouvrir-, giving j’ouvrirai. Two rs and an i between them — worth writing out once.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvrirai | I will open | |
| tu ouvriras | you will open | |
| il / elle ouvrira | he / she will open | |
| nous ouvrirons | we will open | |
| vous ouvrirez | you will open | |
| ils / elles ouvriront | they will open |
Conditionnel — would open
J’ouvrirais. The polite request built on it is one you will use: pourriez-vous ouvrir la fenêtre ?
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvrirais | I would open | |
| tu ouvrirais | you would open | |
| il / elle ouvrirait | he / she would open | |
| nous ouvririons | we would open | |
| vous ouvririez | you would open | |
| ils / elles ouvriraient | they would open |
Subjonctif — identical to the présent
Because the présent already takes -e endings, four of the six subjunctive forms are spelled exactly like the présent. Only nous and vous differ.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ouvre | (that) I open | |
| tu ouvres | (that) you open | |
| il / elle ouvre | (that) he / she open | |
| nous ouvrions | (that) we open | |
| vous ouvriez | (that) you open | |
| ils / elles ouvrent | (that) they open |
Impératif — no s
Because it behaves like an -er verb, the tu imperative drops its s: ouvre !, not ouvres. Compare pars ! and mets !, which keep theirs.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| ouvre ! | open! (to one person you know) | |
| ouvrons ! | let’s open! | |
| ouvrez ! | open! (formal, or to a group) |
Plus-que-parfait — had opened
J’avais ouvert.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’avais ouvert | I had opened | |
| tu avais ouvert | you had opened | |
| il / elle avait ouvert | he / she had opened | |
| nous avions ouvert | we had opened | |
| vous aviez ouvert | you had opened | |
| ils / elles avaient ouvert | they had opened |
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Quick answers
Ouvrir, answered.
The questions that come up while you are learning the table.