Learn Simple Conjugations for "Sauter" (to Jump)

The French verb sauter means "to jump." When you want to say "jumped" in the past tense or "jumping" in the present tense, you will need to know its conjugations. This is a regular verb and a quick lesson will show you how easy it is to transform.

The Basic Conjugations of Sauter

Among all the French verb conjugations, sauter falls into the largest group. It is a regular -er verb and it uses the most common conjugation pattern found in the language. This can make each new verb you study just a little easier to remember because the same endings are applied to each verb.

The first step in any conjugation is identifying the verb stem and in this case, it is saut-. To this, we can apply the appropriate ending for the subject pronoun and the tense of the sentence. In the indicative mood (which you will use most often), adding an e gives you the present tense je saute (I am jumping) and -ions forms the imperfect nous sautions (we jumped). 

The Present Participle of Sauter

When you add -ant to the verb stem of a regular verb like sauter, you form the present participle. The result is sautant, which can become a noun or adjective in certain circumstances.

Sauter in the Compound Past Tense

In French, we can use passé composé for the past tense. It's a compound of two elements: the present tense conjugate of avoir and the past participle sauté. This results in phrases such as j'ai sauté (I jumped) and nous avons sauté (we jumped).

More Simple Conjugations of Sauter

If you're ever uncertain about whether someone jumped or not, you may decide to use the subjunctive. When someone will not jump unless something else happens first, that is when the conditional is useful. The passé simple and imperfect subjunctive are both literary tenses and found in written French.

When you want to quickly tell someone to "Jump!" you can use the French imperative. There's no need to include the subject pronoun. Simply say, "Saute !"