How do you say remember in French?

Today we’ll cover the essential verbs that express the concept of remembering in French. The most important of these are the two reflexive verbs se rappeler and se souvenir, which are quite similar but which have important differences. We’ll also see a couple of other verb options for remembering (and not forgetting) in French.

Now let’s get started!

To Remember in French: Verbs

If you look up the French translation of to remember, you’ll find two essential verbs: se rappeler and se souvenir. Both are reflexive, so they always need the reflexive pronouns in every conjugation.

Since they’re reflexive, se rappeler and se souvenir always take être as their auxiliary verb in the compound tenses. We cover the mechanics of this in more detail in our post on French être verbs.

Now let’s take a look at how to use each one to mean to remember in French.

Se rappeler

Our French se rappeler translations can be either to remember or to recall.

In general, we conjugate se rappeler and then follow it by the direct object, without a preposition.

• Je me rappelle notre voyage à Paris. – I remember our trip to Paris.

• Est-ce que tu te rappelles son nom? – Do you remember his name?

• Nous nous rappelons notre première rencontre. – We recall our first date.

We can still include the preposition de after our conjugated form of se rappeler when we introduce another verb.

• Vous vous êtes rappelés de fermer les fenêtres ? – Did you remember to close the windows?

• Je me rappelle d’avoir donné un billet de cinquante euros, mais je ne me rappelle pas d’avoir obtenu de change. – I remember having given a fifty euro note, but I don’t remember having received change.

Keep in mind that the non-reflexive version of this verb, rappeler, has a very different meaning: to call back or to order a recall.

Se rappeler is an irregular verb that follows the pattern of appeler. Let’s see our se rappeler conjugation chart in le présent de l’indicatif. Notice how we need to double the lls in most of the conjugations, but not all. The past participle is rappelé, with just one l.

Se souvenir de

The best se souvenir translation in English is to remember, though it can also have similar meanings such as to recall or even to commemorate.

We always need to follow this verb with the preposition de before the object, so it’s best to think of it as se souvenir de.

• Je me souviens de notre voyage à Paris. – I remember our trip to Paris.

• Est-ce que tu te souviens de son nom? – Do you remember his name?

• Nous nous souvenons de notre première rencontre. – We recall our first date.

This verb is better used for reflections on the past, rather than more mundane things like remembering to lock the door.

• Mes grands-parents se sont toujours souvenus de leur vie durant la guerre. – My grandparents always recollected their life during the war.

• Est-ce que les enfants se souviennent de leurs grands-parents ? – Do the children remember their grandparents?

This verb appears on the license plates in the province of Québec, as the simple statement of je me souviens. It sounds almost rhetorical in this sense, but the meaning is much deeper as a sentiment of societal memory of the province’s French-speaking forebears.

Se souvenir is always reflexive: there is no non-reflexive form of the verb as simply souvenir.

Se souvenir is an irregular verb that follows the pattern of venir conjugation. Let’s see our se souvenir conjugation chart in le présent de l’indicatif. Notice the -e- to -ie- stem change from souven- to souvien- for most of the grammatical persons, as well as the double nns in the third-person plural as souviennent. The past participle is souvenu.

Se remémorer

So far we’ve seen the two main verbs used to mean to remember in French. There’s one more, however, that may appear as a possible French translation of remember, so we’ll take a quick look at it here.

Se remémorer is even more formal than se souvenir, really used for recalling events of one’s past. It’s not usually used in everyday speech, but it’s definitely a good option when writing or speaking solemnly about memories.

Se remémorer does not require a preposition before introducing the direct object. It is only used for remembering nouns, so if we’re using it to remember an action we’ll need to put that action into a noun form.

• Elle se remémore souvent son enfance. – She often recalls her childhood.

• Je me remémore ce moment précis. – I recall that specific moment.

• Nous nous remémorons le départ de nos enfants vers l’université. – We recall the departure of our kids to university.

Although se remémorer as a reflexive verb is indeed an option to talk about remembering something in French, it’s not so common. The non-reflexive form, remémorer, is a bit more common, meaning to remind, to recall, or to evoke. Nonetheless, both forms are still quite formal and are normally just seen in literature.

• La performance de ce soir remémore le premier spectacle dans ce théâtre lors de son ouverture en 1988. – The performance this evening evokes the very first show of this theature on the occasion of its opening in 1988.

Se remémorer is a regular French -er verb. Here’s its conjugation chart in le présent de l’indicatif.

Oublier

The final verb we’ll introduce for talking about remembering in French actually has the opposite meaning! Oublier means to forget in French, but it’s a much more common verb for telling people to remember something.

The first two verbs we saw above, se rappeler and se souvenir, are indeed both common for describing what we remember, but neither one is used so often for mundane things. Instead of saying that we remembered in French, we just say that we didn’t forget!

Regardless of the tense, we use the French negation words ne pas to mean don’t, so ne pas oublier, meaning don’t forget, is actually our most common expression for remember in French. Likewise, j’oublie can just as easily be translated as either I forget or I don’t remember.

If we forget to do something, we follow oublier with the preposition de before introducing the other verb. If we forget things, we just follow oublier with the direct object of whatever is forgotten.

• Vous n’avez pas oublié de fermer les fenêtres ? – You didn’t forget to close the windows? – Did you remember to close the windows?

• J’oublie où j’ai mis mes clés. – I forget where I put my keys. – I don’t remember where I put my keys.

• Ça va être un miracle si tout le monde arrive à l’aéroport et que personne n’oublie son passeport. – It will be a miracle if everyone arrives at the airport and nobody forgets their passport.

When using the imperative tense to tell someone to remember something, we almost always say don’t forget to rather than remember to in French.

• N’oublie pas tes gants. – Don’t forget your gloves.

• N’oublie pas de m’appeler. – Don’t forget to call me. – Remember to call me.

• N’oubliez pas de fermer les fenêtres. – Don’t forget to close the windows. – Remember to close the windows.

• N’oublions pas d’emmener le chien la prochaine fois que nous partons à la rivière ! – Let’s remember to take the dog next time we go to the river!

Oublier follows a fairly regular conjugation pattern, though in some tenses the -ier ending triggers some different spellings than for regular French -er verbs. Let’s see our oublier conjugation chart in le présent de l’indicatif.

Conclusion: To Remember in French

Today our focus was on the different verbs for to remember in French. We started with the two most common ones, se rappeler and se souvenir. We noted that they’re both a bit formal, with se rappeler the better option for more mundane memories. We then looked at se remémorer, which is definitely the most formal of the three.

We rounded out our French remember verbs with the equivalent of to forget, since ne pas oublier is actually the most common way for people to tell each other to remember something in a casual context.

As always, we provided plenty of examples for each one, as well as their most important conjugation tables. If you’ve read this far, you’ll surely remember the best way to express this concept whenever you’re referring to memories in French!