How to Conjugate "Fêter" (to Celebrate, to Party) in French

The verb fêter is just one word for "to celebrate," "to party," or "to feast" in French. Another option is célébrer and while that may be easier to remember, fêter is easier to conjugate, so you have some choices about which to use. If you like the simpler conjugations, let's take a look at how it's done with fêter.

Conjugating the French Verb Fêter

Fêter follows a very common verb conjugation pattern. If you've worked with other regular -ER verbs, then this lesson should be pretty straightforward. Even if this is your first verb of this style, you can take what you learn here and apply it to words like donner (to give), fermer (to close), and countless others.

Before any verb conjugation, we have to identify the verb stem. For fêter, this is fêt-. It is to this stem that we attach a variety of infinitive endings. The challenge in French is that there's a new ending for every subject pronoun within each of the present, future, and imperfect past tenses. That means you have more words to learn, but you will get the hang of it.

For example, in order to say "I am celebrating," use "je fête" or to say "we will party," use "nous fêterons." Practicing these in context makes them easier to remember.

Subject	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	fête	fêterai	fêtais
tu	fêtes	fêteras	fêtais
il	fête	fêtera	fêtait
nous	fêtons	fêterons	fêtions
vous	fêtez	fêterez	fêtiez
ils	fêtent	fêteront	fêtaient

The Present Participle of Fêter

To use the present participle of fêter as a verb, adjective, noun, or gerund, add -ant to the verb stem. This results in the present participle of fêtant.

The Past Participle and Passé Composé

The past participle of fêter is fêté. This is used to form the past tense known as the passé composé. You will also need to conjugate the auxiliary verb avoir to fit the subject pronoun. As an example, "I partied" is "j'ai fêtê" and "we celebrated" is "nous avons fêtê."

More Simple Fêter Conjugations to Learn

When the act of celebrating is not guaranteed, you will find a use for the subjunctive verb mood. In a similar fashion, the conditional verb form implies that the celebrating is dependent on something else.

The passé simple is often reserved for formal writing. While you may not use it often, knowing both it and the imperfect subjunctive form will improve your French reading skills.

Subject	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	fête	fêterais	fêtai	fêtasse
tu	fêtes	fêterais	fêtas	fêtasses
il	fête	fêterait	fêta	fêtât
nous	fêtions	fêterions	fêtâmes	fêtassions
vous	fêtiez	fêteriez	fêtâtes	fêtassiez
ils	fêtent	fêteraient	fêtèrent	fêtassent

The imperative verb form is particularly useful for fêter because it's often used in exclamations and short statements. When using it, feel free to drop formality and skip the subject pronoun: "tu fête" becomes "fête."

	Imperative
(tu)	fête
(nous)	fêtons
(vous)	fêtez