How to Conjugate "Pratiquer" (to Practice) in French

The French verb pratiquer is relatively easy to remember because it means "to practice." When you want to say "we practiced" in the past tense or "I am practicing" in the present tense, the verb needs to be conjugated. A quick lesson will introduce you to the simplest forms of pratiquer for you to practice.

The Basic Conjugations of Pratiquer

Pratiquer is a regular -er verb and it follows the most common conjugation pattern found in the French language. For students who are experienced in conjugations, this should be a pretty easy lesson.

As with all verbs, you'll begin by identifying the verb stem (or radical). For pratiquer, that is pratiqu-. From there, a variety of endings are added that correspond to both the subject pronoun and the tense of the sentence. This gives us things like je pratique for "I am practicing" and nous pratiquions for "we practiced."

	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	pratique	pratiquerai	pratiquais
tu	pratiques	pratiqueras	pratiquais
il	pratique	pratiquera	pratiquait
nous	pratiquons	pratiquerons	pratiquions
vous	pratiquez	pratiquerez	pratiquiez
ils	pratiquent	pratiqueront	pratiquaient

The Present Participle of Pratiquer

Adding -ant to the radical produces the present participle pratiquant. Not only is it a verb, but there are some instances in which it becomes a noun or even an adjective.

Pratiquer in the Compound Past Tense

In French, passé composé is the compound past tense that uses the past participle pratiqué. To form it, begin by conjugating the auxiliary verb avoir to the present tense and finish the compound with pratiqué. The result is phrases such as j'ai pratiqué, meaning "I practiced," and nous avons pratiqué for "we practiced."

More Simple Conjugations of Pratiquer

There are a few more basic conjugations you'll want to know for pratiquer. Among those are the subjunctive and the conditional. The former implies uncertainty to the practicing while the latter is for an "if...then" situation. The literary tenses of the passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are reserved for writing and are good to memorize as well.

	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	pratique	pratiquerais	pratiquai	pratiquasse
tu	pratiques	pratiquerais	pratiquas	pratiquasses
il	pratique	pratiquerait	pratiqua	pratiquât
nous	pratiquions	pratiquerions	pratiquâmes	pratiquassions
vous	pratiquiez	pratiqueriez	pratiquâtes	pratiquassiez
ils	pratiquent	pratiqueraient	pratiquèrent	pratiquassent

The imperative is used often for assertive statements like "Practice!" When using it, skip the subject pronoun and leave it at "Pratique !"

	Imperative
(tu)	pratique
(nous)	pratiquons
(vous)	pratiquez