French guides · Verb tables + audio
Vouloir: to want — and why you should almost never say it.
Vouloir means “to want”, and it is the rare verb where the most useful form is not in the présent at all. Walk into a French café and say je veux un café and you will get your coffee, along with a look. The form that belongs there is je voudrais — the conditionnel — which is “I would like”. Learn that one first and work backwards.
Présent — three stems
Same shape as pouvoir, which is no accident — they are the two great irregular partners of French and they misbehave in the same places. Veu- in the singular, voul- for nous and vous, veul- for ils.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je veux | I want | |
| tu veux | you want | |
| il / elle veut | he / she wants | |
| nous voulons | we want | |
| vous voulez | you want | |
| ils / elles veulent | they want |
Je veux is not banned — it is simply strong. It is right when you mean it: je veux savoir la vérité, “I want to know the truth”. And tu veux…? is the normal, friendly way to offer something to somebody you know: tu veux un café ?
Je voudrais — the form to learn first
French politeness runs on the conditionnel, and nowhere more than here. The difference is the same one English draws between “I want” and “I would like”, but French leans on it much harder — to the point where using the présent in a shop reads as brusque rather than direct.
| Say this | Not this | Where |
|---|---|---|
| je voudrais un café | je veux un café | ordering anything |
| je voudrais réserver | je veux réserver | on the phone |
| voudriez-vous…? | voulez-vous…? | asking a favour |
| tu veux un café ? | — | offering, to a friend |
Je voudrais (I’d like), pourriez-vous (could you), j’aimerais (I’d love to), ça serait possible ? (would that be possible?). Four conditionnels and you can ask for anything in France without a single imperative.
Passé composé — wanted, or decided to
Participle voulu, built with avoir. As with pouvoir, the passé composé carries a result the imparfait does not: il a voulu partir means he decided to leave and went. For the ongoing state of wanting, you want the imparfait.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai voulu | I wanted / decided to | |
| tu as voulu | you wanted / decided to | |
| il / elle a voulu | he / she wanted / decided to | |
| nous avons voulu | we wanted / decided to | |
| vous avez voulu | you wanted / decided to | |
| ils / elles ont voulu | they wanted / decided to |
Il n’a pas voulu m’aider is not “he didn’t want to help me” so much as “he refused to help me”. The passé composé turns a feeling into a decision, and a negative decision is a refusal.
Imparfait — the wanting that lasted
Regular from voul-. Je voulais te demander quelque chose — “I wanted to ask you something” — is also a soft way into a request, and very common in speech.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je voulais | I wanted / used to want | |
| tu voulais | you wanted / used to want | |
| il / elle voulait | he / she wanted / used to want | |
| nous voulions | we wanted / used to want | |
| vous vouliez | you wanted / used to want | |
| ils / elles voulaient | they wanted / used to want |
Futur and conditionnel — voudr-
The stem is voudr-, with the same intrusive d that venir takes in viendr-. The futur itself is not much used — wanting is a présent kind of thing — but it is what the all-important conditionnel is built from.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je voudrai | I will want | |
| tu voudras | you will want | |
| il / elle voudra | he / she will want | |
| nous voudrons | we will want | |
| vous voudrez | you will want | |
| ils / elles voudront | they will want |
Conditionnel — the one that matters
Here it is in full. Je voudrais is worth more to a beginner than the entire présent table, and nous voudrions gets a table of four fed.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je voudrais | I would want | |
| tu voudrais | you would want | |
| il / elle voudrait | he / she would want | |
| nous voudrions | we would want | |
| vous voudriez | you would want | |
| ils / elles voudraient | they would want |
Subjonctif — veuille
A separate stem, veuill-, in the boot; voulions and vouliez outside it. Je ne veux pas qu’il vienne, “I don’t want him to come” — note that French needs a whole clause where English can use an infinitive.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je veuille | (that) I want | |
| tu veuilles | (that) you want | |
| il / elle veuille | (that) he / she want | |
| nous voulions | (that) we want | |
| vous vouliez | (that) you want | |
| ils / elles veuillent | (that) they want |
Impératif — the formal letter form
Taken from the subjunctive and almost never used as a real order. Veuillez is the exception and you will meet it constantly in writing and announcements: veuillez patienter (“please hold”), veuillez agréer… (the closing formula of a formal letter). It is the most polite “please” French has.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| veuille ! | want! (to one person you know) | |
| veuillons ! | let’s want! | |
| veuillez ! | want! (formal, or to a group) |
Plus-que-parfait — had wanted
J’avais voulu — “I had wanted”. Rare in speech, ordinary in narrative.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’avais voulu | I had wanted | |
| tu avais voulu | you had wanted | |
| il / elle avait voulu | he / she had wanted | |
| nous avions voulu | we had wanted | |
| vous aviez voulu | you had wanted | |
| ils / elles avaient voulu | they had wanted |
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Vouloir, answered.
The questions that come up while you are learning the table.