How to Conjugate "Répéter" (to Repeat) in French

When you want to say "repeated" or "repeating" in French, you'll use the verb répéter. Yet, to get it into the past or present tense, a conjugation is necessary. In this lesson, we'll introduce you to the most common and simplest forms of the verb so you can use it in a sentence.

The Basic Conjugations of Répéter

French verb conjugations are required in order to form complete sentences. Unlike English, which has only a few conjugations, French gives you a new form of the verb for every subject pronoun within each tense. This means that you'll have more words to memorize.

Répéter is a stem-changing verb. This is apparent in the indicative mood and the present, future, and imperfect past tenses in the chart. Notice how in some forms, the second e remains an é and in others, it changes to an è. Also, you'll find that in the future tense, either option is available to you. 

Other than that difference in spelling, you'll find that the endings attached to the verb stem (répét-) are the same used for regular -er verbs. In that sense, these conjugations can be easier if you already know some of those conjugations.

With that, match the subject pronoun with the proper tense for your sentence. For example, "I am repeating" is je répète and "we will repeat" is nous répéterons.

	Present	Future	Imperfect
je	répète	répéterai répèterai	répétais
tu	répètes	répéteras répèteras	répétais
il	répète	répétera répètera	répétait
nous	répétons	répéterons répèterons	répétions
vous	répétez	répéterez répèterez	répétiez
ils	répètent	répéteront répèteront	répétaient

The Present Participle of Répéter

The present participle of répéter also follows a regular pattern by adding an -ant ending without a stem change. The result is the word répétant.

Répéter in the Compound Past Tense

In French, the compound past tense is the passé composé. This is constructed by conjugating avoir to the subject's present tense and following it with the past participle répété. It comes together simply with j'ai répété meaning "I repeated" and nous avons répété meaning "we repeated."

More Simple Conjugations of Répéter

There will be times when you don't know if something was repeated and this is when the subjunctive will be useful. Then again, if something will be repeated only if something else happens, you'll use the conditional. 

The passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive are literary tenses found frequently in formal writing.

	Subjunctive	Conditional	Passé Simple	Imperfect Subjunctive
je	répète	répéterais répèterais	répétai	répétasse
tu	répètes	répéterais répèterais	répétas	répétasses
il	répète	répéterait répèterait	répéta	répétât
nous	répétions	répéterions répèterions	répétâmes	répétassions
vous	répétiez	répéteriez répèteriez	répétâtes	répétassiez
ils	répètent	répéteraient répèteraient	répétèrent	répétassent

To order or request someone to "Repeat!" in French, use the imperative. When doing so, skip the subject pronoun and simply say, "Répète !"

	Imperative
(tu)	répète
(nous)	répétons
(vous)	répétez