How to Conjugate "Comporter" (to Consist of, Include, Comprise)

In French, the verb comporter means "to consist of," "to comprise," or "to include." It's a very useful word for your vocabulary list. French students will also be delighted to know that it's relatively easy to conjugate.

Conjugating the French Verb Comporter

Comporter is a regular -ER verb and that takes some of the difficulty out of conjugating it. This is particularly true if you've already memorized similar verbs like attacher (to attach) or accepter (to accept). That is because all of these verbs have the same endings.

The stem of comporter is comport. All you have to do is add the appropriate infinitive ending to match the subject pronoun and the tense of your sentence. For instance, "I include" is "je comporte" and "we will include" is "nous comporterons."

Subject	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	comporte	comporterai	comportais
tu	comportes	comporteras	comportais
il	comporte	comportera	comportait
nous	comportons	comporterons	comportions
vous	comportez	comporterez	comportiez
ils	comportent	comporteront	comportaient

The Present Participle of Comporter

The present participle of comporter is comportant. This is formed quite simply as well: the -er ending is dropped and -ant is added to the verb stem. This is a verb, of course, but you may also find it useful as an adjective, gerund, or noun in certain circumstances.

The Passé Composé and Past Participle

A rather common way to express the past tense in French is the passé composé. Rather than conjugate comporter using the imperfect, you only need to know the past participle comporté. Yet, you do need to include the conjugate of the auxiliary verb avoir.

For example, "I included" is "j'ai comporté" while "we included" is "nous avons comporté. Notice how ai and avons are conjugates of avoir and the past participle does not change as the subject changes.

More Simple Comporter Conjugations to Know

As you become more fluent in French, you may need to know a few more conjugations of comporter. It's likely that you will only encounter the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive in French writing. Yet, you should be able to recognize these.

The other two verb forms express moods and can be rather useful in conversation. The subjunctive form gives the verb a level of uncertainty or subjectivity. Likewise, the conditional form tells us that the verb may or may not happen because it's dependent on conditions.

Subject	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	comporte	comporterais	comportai	comportasse
tu	comportes	comporterais	comportas	comportasses
il	comporte	comporterait	comporta	comportât
nous	comportions	comporterions	comportâmes	comportassions
vous	comportiez	comporteriez	comportâtes	comportassiez
ils	comportent	comporteraient	comportèrent	comportassent

The imperative verb form is used primarily in exclamations. For this one, you can skip the subject pronoun completely as it's implied in the verb. Rather than "tu comporte," simplify it to "comporte."

	Imperative
(tu)	comporte
(nous)	comportons
(vous)	comportez