Venez nombreux (come one, come all!) to learn about the French verb venir! This verb is one of the most frequently used irregular verbs in the language and has a few different uses. It’s commonly translated as to come.

In this post, we’ll introduce the various uses of venir in French, and then go deep on venir French conjugation. Because venir is an irregular verb in French, its present-tense conjugation and stems for other tenses will need to be memorized. Let’s dive in!

Venir in French: Meanings

Our focus in today’s post is primarily on venir French conjugation, but let’s at least introduce the common uses of venir In French.

First and foremost, this verb is used to express the idea of coming or arriving to a physical location or event.

• Oui, nous venons à la fête ce soir. – Yes, we’re coming to the party tonight.

Venir can also be employed to convey the idea of coming from an origin or source.

• Ce vin vient de France. – This wine comes from France.

Watch out for context, because the French venir also has the same sexual meaning as the English verb to come.

• As-tu déjà joui ? / Oh mon dieu oui, tu m’as fait venir toute de suite ! – Did you already orgasm? / OMG yes, you made me come right away!

Finally, venir is commonly used to talk about the recent past using the structure venir de + infinitif. The English translation for this construction often uses the word just.

• Je viens de finir mes devoirs. – I just finished my homework.

How to conjugate venir in French

Venir is an irregular verb in French, thus its forms and stems will need to be memorized.

For a comprehensive lesson on the fundamentals of French verb conjugation, start off with our detailed guide on French conjugation.

In the following sections on venir conjugation, we’ll focus on the most important tenses that we regularly use in French. At the end, we’ll complete our set with all of the remaining tenses so you have a French venir conjugation chart for every tense.

Venir conjugation: French présent de l’indicatif

One of the most useful tenses of venir in French is the present indicative, or le présent de l’indicatif. Here’s our venir present tense conjugation table:

Venir conjugation: French passé composé

The passé composé is the main past tense in French. Head over to this post about the passé composé to review when to use it and how to form it. Any verb conjugated in the passé composé will need an auxiliary verb, which for venir is always the verb être. Because the helping verb is être, the past participle will need to agree in gender and number with the subject or subject pronoun.

In English, venir conjugated in the passé composé is translated as came, or sometimes as has come or have come.

Venir conjugation: French imparfait

Our other venir past tense conjugation is in the imparfait. Venir imperfect conjugation starts with a regular stem: ven-.

For a detailed explanation of the imparfait, check out our full post on the formation and use of l’imparfait in French.

In English, venir conjugated in the imparfait is usually translated as came, was coming, or were coming.

Venir conjugation: French conditionnel présent

To make a polite request or express a hypothetical action, we conjugate venir in le conditionnel présent, or the present conditional tense. In this tense, venir takes the regular conditionnel endings on its irregular stem: viendr-. Check out our dedicated post for a full explanation on le conditionnel in French.

In English, venir conjugated in the conditionnel présent is usually translated as would come.

Venir conjugation: French conditionnel passé

To talk about actions that would have occurred in the past (for venir, you could say that you would have come), we use le conditionnel passé, or the past conditional.

In this compound tense, the same conjugation rules as the passé composé apply: we use être as the auxiliary verb, while the past participle needs to agree with the gender and number of the subject.

Venir conjugation: French futur simple

Le futur simple, or the future tense, is another common tense for venir in French. Check out our complete post on the French future tense if you need a refresher on its usages and conjugation.

As with le conditionnel présent, the stem for venir in le futur simple is irregular: viendr-. Venir in le futur simple translates as will come.

Venir conjugation: French subjonctif présent

The last tense commonly used with the verb venir that we’ll cover with its own section is le subjonctif présent, or the present subjunctive tense. Venir follows the regular pattern in the nous and vous conjugations of this tense, while for the other subjects the irregular stem is vienn-.

Head on over to our post on subjunctive conjugation for a full explanation of this tense.

Additional venir conjugation charts

So far, we have discussed the primary tenses commonly used with the verb venir. To provide a thorough overview, let’s now explore the remaining tenses in the tables below. For explanations of these tenses, please refer to our comprehensive guide on all the French verb tenses.

The venir present participle is venant.

The venir past participle is venu (and its variants venue, venus, and venues).

The venir perfect participle is étant venu(e)(s).

The infinitif passé of venir is être venu(e)(s).

Conclusion: Venir French conjugation

To conclude this post on the use and conjugation of venir in French, it’s important to reiterate the importance of this verb. Venir offers a wide range of applications in its various tenses, the most prevalent being to signify coming or arriving, as well as to communicate origin. It can also be used with the construction venir de + infinitive to express actions that have just been completed in the immediate past.

We spent most of this post thoroughly covering our venir French conjugation in its most common tenses. We saw that venir utilizes a few different irregular stems in the simple tenses, and that it takes the auxiliary verb être in the compound tenses. We ended our post with the rest of the venir conjugation tables, so you’ve now seen every single conjugation of venir in French!