How to Conjugate 'Battre' (to Beat)

The French word battre means to beat. (The reflexive se battre means to fight, as does the verb combattre.) It is an irregular -re verb, meaning you'll have to memorize the conjugations, rather than rely knowing on the regular -re conjugation pattern.

How to Conjugate the French Verb Battre

You can start as you would when conjugating a regular -re verb and determine the stem by dropping the -re (batt-).

Here's where things deviate from a regular verb: In the present tense, the singular forms also drop the second t. These charts show you how to conjugate this irregular verb. (Other verbs that include battre, like abattre, combattre and ​débattre, also follow this irregular pattern.)

	Present	Future	Imperfect	Present participle
je	bats	battrai	battais	battant
tu	bats	battras	battais
il	bat	battra	battait
nous	battons	battrons	battions
vous	battez	battrez	battiez
ils	battent	battront	battaient
	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé simple	Imperfect subjunctive
je	batte	battrais	battis	battisse
tu	battes	battrais	battis	battisses
il	batte	battrait	battit	battît
nous	battions	battrions	battîmes	battissions
vous	battiez	battriez	battîtes	battissiez
ils	battent	battraient	battirent	battissent
	Imperative
(tu)	bats
(nous)	battons
(vous)	battez

How to Use Battre in the Past Tense

Though this is a lesson about simple conjugation, it's important to touch on the compound tense passé composé, as it is the most common way to put something in the past tense in French.

For battre, the auxiliary verb is avoir and the past participle is battu.

For example:

Il a battu les oeufs avec une fourchette.
He beat the eggs with a fork.