# Venir Conjugation — Every Tense of the French Verb “To Come”

> **Venir** means “to come”. Présent: **je viens, tu viens, il vient, nous venons, vous venez, ils viennent**. Its past is built with **être**, not avoir — *je suis venu* — so the ending agrees with who is speaking. And **venir de** plus an infinitive is how French says something has *just* happened: *je viens de manger*, “I’ve just eaten”.

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Updated: 2026-09-16

## Présent — two stems, not one

Venir does the thing a lot of common French verbs do: it uses one stem when the ending is stressed and another when it is not. Four forms take vien- and two take ven-, and the two that break ranks are — as almost always in French — nous and vous.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je viens | I come |
| tu viens | you come |
| il / elle vient | he / she comes |
| nous venons | we come |
| vous venez | you come |
| ils / elles viennent | they come |

**The boot** — Write the six forms in a column and draw a line around the ones with vien-: viens, viens, vient at the top and viennent at the bottom, with venons and venez left outside. The shape is a boot, and dozens of French verbs are conjugated inside one.

**Three of these sound identical** — Viens, viens and vient are one sound — the s and the t are both silent. Viennent is the one you can hear coming: the double n un-nasalises the vowel, so it is “vyen” rather than “vyañ”. That difference is how a listener knows whether one person is coming or several.

## Venir de — the recent past

This is the section worth the visit. English has a tense for what has just happened — “I have just eaten”. French does not, and reaches for venir instead. Put venir in the présent, add de, then an infinitive:

| French | Literally | Means |
|---|---|---|
| je viens de manger | I come from to eat | I’ve just eaten |
| il vient de partir | he comes from to leave | he’s just left |
| nous venons d’arriver | we come from to arrive | we’ve just arrived |
| je viens de le voir | I come from to see him | I’ve just seen him |

**⚠ The verb stays in the présent** — The most common mistake is putting venir into the past, on the reasonable theory that you are talking about the past. You are not: je suis venu de manger is wrong and means nothing. The event is recent now, so the verb is présent. Put venir in the imparfait instead and you get the step further back — je venais de manger, “I had just eaten”.

It is the mirror image of aller + infinitive, which does the near future. Je vais manger — I’m about to eat. Je viens de manger — I’ve just eaten. Two everyday verbs covering the minutes either side of now.

## Passé composé — with être, so it agrees

Venir is one of the movement verbs that build their past with être rather than avoir. That has a visible consequence English has no equivalent for: the participle agrees with the subject, the way an adjective does.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je suis venu(e) | I came / have come |
| tu es venu(e) | you came / have come |
| il / elle est venu(e) | he / she came / have come |
| nous sommes venu(e)s | we came / have come |
| vous êtes venu(e)(s) | you came / have come |
| ils / elles sont venu(e)s | they came / have come |

**Who is speaking changes the spelling** — A man writes je suis venu; a woman writes je suis venue. A group writes nous sommes venus, or venues if everyone in it is female. None of those endings is pronounced — this is a spelling rule, not a sound one — but it is marked in every exam and every email.

The participle is venu, which makes venir unusually kind: no new stem to learn, just the infinitive with its ending swapped.

## Imparfait — the regular one

Built the standard way, with no surprises: take the nous form of the présent (venons), drop the -ons, and hang the imparfait endings off what is left. The vien- stem does not appear anywhere in this tense.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je venais | I used to come / was coming |
| tu venais | you used to come / was coming |
| il / elle venait | he / she used to come / was coming |
| nous venions | we used to come / was coming |
| vous veniez | you used to come / was coming |
| ils / elles venaient | they used to come / was coming |

## Futur and conditionnel — the doubled r

The futur stem is viendr- — the vien- stem with a d wedged in. It has to be learnt, but it pays twice over: the same stem builds the conditionnel.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je viendrai | I will come |
| tu viendras | you will come |
| il / elle viendra | he / she will come |
| nous viendrons | we will come |
| vous viendrez | you will come |
| ils / elles viendront | they will come |

**The verbs that share this trick** — Tenir (to hold) conjugates identically throughout — je tiens, nous tenons, je tiendrai. So do all of venir’s own relatives: revenir (to come back), devenir (to become), se souvenir (to remember), prévenir (to warn). One table, seven verbs.

## Conditionnel — would come

Same viendr- stem, the imparfait endings bolted on. This is the tense for invitations that leave room to say no: tu viendrais avec nous ? — “would you come with us?” — is gentler than asking outright.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je viendrais | I would come |
| tu viendrais | you would come |
| il / elle viendrait | he / she would come |
| nous viendrions | we would come |
| vous viendriez | you would come |
| ils / elles viendraient | they would come |

## Subjonctif — after il faut que

The boot is back, and in exactly the same place: vienne for the singular and ils, venions and veniez outside it. Il faut que tu viennes — “you need to come”.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| je vienne | (that) I come |
| tu viennes | (that) you come |
| il / elle vienne | (that) he / she come |
| nous venions | (that) we come |
| vous veniez | (that) you come |
| ils / elles viennent | (that) they come |

## Impératif — come here

Straight from the présent, minus the pronouns. Viens ! to someone you know, venez ! to a group or a stranger. Both turn up constantly with a destination attached: viens ici, venez avec moi.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| viens ! | come! (to one person you know) |
| venons ! | let’s come! |
| venez ! | come! (formal, or to a group) |

## Plus-que-parfait — had come

The imparfait of être plus the participle, still agreeing: j’étais venu, “I had come”. Use it for the thing that had already happened before the moment you are describing.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’étais venu(e) | I had come |
| tu étais venu(e) | you had come |
| il / elle était venu(e) | he / she had come |
| nous étions venu(e)s | we had come |
| vous étiez venu(e)(s) | you had come |
| ils / elles étaient venu(e)s | they had come |

## FAQ

### How do you conjugate venir in the present tense?

Je viens, tu viens, il / elle vient, nous venons, vous venez, ils / elles viennent. Four forms use the stem vien- and two — nous and vous — use ven-.

### What does venir de mean?

Venir de plus an infinitive means something has just happened: je viens de manger is “I’ve just eaten”. The verb venir stays in the présent even though you are describing the past.

### Does venir take avoir or être in the passé composé?

Être. It is a movement verb, so the past is je suis venu, and the participle agrees with the subject — venue for a woman, venus for a group.

### What is the past participle of venir?

Venu. It adds e, s or es to agree with the subject, and none of those endings changes the pronunciation.

### What is the futur stem of venir?

Viendr-, giving je viendrai. The same stem builds the conditionnel, je viendrais.

### How do you tell il vient and ils viennent apart when listening?

By the vowel. Vient is nasal — “vyañ” — because the n is single. Viennent has a double n, which un-nasalises it to “vyen”. The final -ent is silent, so the vowel is the only clue.

### Which other verbs conjugate like venir?

Tenir (to hold) and every compound of both: revenir, devenir, se souvenir, prévenir, obtenir, appartenir. Learn this table once and you have all of them.

## Related guides

- Aller conjugation: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/aller-conjugation
- Partir conjugation: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/partir-conjugation
- French verb conjugation: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/french-verb-conjugation
- All free French guides: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides