The Conjugations of "Pluerer" (to Cry) in French

The French verb pluerer means "to cry." When you want to say "he is crying" in the present tense or "we cried" in the past tense, the verb must be conjugated. A quick lesson will introduce you to the simplest forms of pluerer, which you can study and memorize for use in your conversations.

The Basic Conjugations of Pleurer

French verb conjugations may not be most French students' favorite things to learn, but when you have a verb like pleurer, it is just a little easier. That's because this is a regular -er verb, meaning it uses a very common conjugation pattern.

If you have studied other verbs such as quitter (to leave) or préparer (to prepare), you can use what you learned for those and apply it here. The key is to find the verb stem (or radical), which is pleur-. To that, you will add different endings to form each conjugation.

The endings you need are found in the chart. All you have to do is pair the appropriate subject pronoun to the tense of your subject. For example, "I am crying" is je pleure and "we cried" is nous pleurions.

	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	pleure	pleurerai	pleurais
tu	pleures	pleureras	pleurais
il	pleure	pleurera	pleurait
nous	pleurons	pleurerons	pleurions
vous	pleurez	pleurerez	pleuriez
ils	pleurent	pleureront	pleuraient

The Present Participle of Pleurer

As with most regular verbs, the present participle of pleurer is formed with an -ant ending. This forms the word pleurant.

Pleurer in the Compound Past Tense

The passé composé is a compound past tense that is very common in French. To form it, you will need to conjugate avoir (an auxiliary verb) into the present tense. The past tense is implied by the past participle pleuré, which is attached to the end. For example, "I cried" is j'ai pleuré and "we cried" is nous avons pleuré.

More Simple Conjugations of Pleurer

Among the other simple conjugations you may need are the subjunctive and the conditional. The former draws into question the act of crying. The latter says that someone will only cry if something else happens.

If you read or write much French, you may also need the passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive. These are literary tenses and most often used in formal writing.

	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	pleure	pleurerais	pleurai	pleurasse
tu	pleures	pleurerais	pleuras	pleurasses
il	pleure	pleurerait	pleura	pleurât
nous	pleurions	pleurerions	pleurâmes	pleurassions
vous	pleuriez	pleureriez	pleurâtes	pleurassiez
ils	pleurent	pleureraient	pleurèrent	pleurassent

When you want to say "Cry!" in French, or some other short, really direct phrase, use the imperative form. All formality is lost here, so there's no need to include the subject pronoun. Simply say, "Pleure!"

	Imperative
(tu)	pleure
(nous)	pleurons
(vous)	pleurez