Sentir, meaning both to smell and to feel in French, is a very common irregular verb. Today we’ll present every sentir conjugation French has, in every tense. First we’ll conjugate sentir in all of the simple tenses of each mood, and then we’ll cover the compound tenses.
Our focus today is on conjugation rather than meanings, so the majority of the post is composed of sentir conjugation tables in every tense. The same conjugations can be applied to a number of other verbs, so read on if you’re looking for any of the following:
mentir conjugation
sortir conjugation
ressortir conjugation
partir conjugation
repartir conjugation
départir conjugation
ressentir conjugation
pressentir conjugation
consentir conjugation
Partir, meaning to leave in French, is always conjugated with être in its compound tenses. The same applies to repartir when used in the sense of leaving again. Both sortir and ressortir are also conjugated with être when talking about people going out and going out again. Check out our post on French verbs of movement for a full lesson on how to recognize and use such être verbs.
The same conjugations we’ll see with sentir can be applied to reflexive forms of similar verbs, except that in the compound tenses the auxiliary verb is always être rather than avoir. This formula works for the following verbs:
se sentir conjugation
se ressentir conjugation
se mentir conjugation
se sortir conjugation
se repentir conjugation
se départir conjugation
Sentir is a common French verb, but also a common Spanish verb with similar meanings relating to feelings. We recommend this post on Spanish sentir conjugation, and its companion post on meanings to compare sentir vs sentirse in Spanish.
Now let’s move on to sentir conjugation in French. We’ll keep our explanations to a minimum, just noting the important details to watch out for in each tense. We’ll include plenty of links to our detailed grammar posts for many of the tenses. If you’re a total beginner, we recommend you start with our detailed guide to French verb conjugation.
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Sentir: Impersonal forms
Before we get into our conjugations, let’s cover the impersonal forms of sentir. The base form, sentir, is the infinitif, while le participe, senti, appears in all of the compound tenses later on. In the compound tenses, sentir takes the auxiliary verb avoir, whereas its pronominal form se sentir takes the auxiliary verb être.
| infinitif | sentir |
| infinitif passé | avoir senti |
| participe | senti (e, s, es) |
| participe présent | sentant |
| participe passé | ayant senti |
Sentir conjugation: Indicative mood
We’ll start with the four simple tenses in l’indicatif: le présent, l’imparfait, le passé simple, and le futur simple. Then we’ll see the four compound tenses: le passé composé, le plus-que-parfait, le passé antérieur, and le futur antérieur.
Sentir conjugation: présent de l’indicatif
These are the most common sentir conjugations. The most important detail is that the stem loses its t for the je and tu conjugations, both of which are sens rather than “sents.”
All three of the singular sentir conjugations are pronounced identically, so be careful to choose the right ending for the homophones je sens vs tu sens vs il sent.
| Subject | sentir: présent |
| je | sens |
| tu | sens |
| il, elle, on | sent |
| nous | sentons |
| vous | sentez |
| ils, elles | sentent |
Sentir conjugation: imparfait
In its imparfait conjugation, sentir keeps its full stem of sent-. We can consider this a regular sentir conjugation French offers us. Like the présent de l’indicatif, all three of the singular sentir imparfait conjugations are pronounced identically. In addition, the third-person plural conjugation, ils sentaient, is also pronounced identically.
| Subject | sentir: imparfait |
| je | sentais |
| tu | sentais |
| il, elle, on | sentait |
| nous | sentions |
| vous | sentiez |
| ils, elles | sentaient |
Sentir conjugation: passé simple
Here again, the stem remains sent-. Our sentir passé simple conjugation is therefore also regular. Don’t forget the accent circonflexe on the plural forms. Again, the three singular sentir conjugations are pronounced identically.
| Subject | sentir: passé simple |
| je | sentis |
| tu | sentis |
| il, elle, on | sentit |
| nous | sentîmes |
| vous | sentîtes |
| ils, elles | sentirent |
Sentir conjugation: futur simple
Our futur simple sentir conjugation keeps its regular stem of sent-. Note that, unlike the other simple indicative tenses of sentir, the je conjugation is different from the tu form when we conjugate sentir in le futur simple: je sentirai vs tu sentiras.
The second- and third-person singular sentir conjugations, tu sentiras vs il sentira, are pronounced identically, as are the first- and third-person plural conjugations of sentir, nous sentirons vs ils sentiront. Be careful to use the correct spelling depending on the grammatical person.
The first-person singular conjugation of je sentirai is pronounced identically to all three singular conjugations in le conditionnel, je sentirais, tu sentirais, and il sentirait, so be careful to choose the correct ending to differentiate between these homophones.
| Subject | sentir: futur simple |
| je | sentirai |
| tu | sentiras |
| il, elle, on | sentira |
| nous | sentirons |
| vous | sentirez |
| ils, elles | sentiront |
Sentir conjugation: passé composé
Le passé composé is the most common compound sentir conjugation French speakers use. We’ll go through these compound conjugations quickly since they all follow the same format, with the conjugated auxiliary verb followed by the past participle senti.
Just remember to use être as the auxiliary verb when conjugating the pronominal form of se sentir, and to add the correct participle endings.
| Subject | sentir: passé composé |
| j’ | ai senti |
| tu | as senti |
| il, elle, on | a senti |
| nous | avons senti |
| vous | avez senti |
| ils, elles | ont senti |
Sentir conjugation: plus-que-parfait
| Subject | sentir: plus-que-parfait |
| j’ | avais senti |
| tu | avais senti |
| il, elle, on | avait senti |
| nous | avions senti |
| vous | aviez senti |
| ils, elles | avaient senti |
Sentir conjugation: passé antérieur
| Subject | sentir: passé antérieur |
| j’ | eus senti |
| tu | eus senti |
| il, elle, on | eut senti |
| nous | eûmes senti |
| vous | eûtes senti |
| ils, elles | eurent senti |
Sentir conjugation: futur antérieur
| Subject | sentir: futur antérieur |
| j’ | aurai senti |
| tu | auras senti |
| il, elle, on | aura senti |
| nous | aurons senti |
| vous | aurez senti |
| ils, elles | auront senti |
Sentir conjugation: Conditional mood
Now let’s take a look at the sentir conjugation tables for le conditionnel. The sentir conditionnel conjugation can be considered regular.
Like we saw in most of the indicative tenses, all three singular conditionnel sentir conjugations are pronounced identically, as is the third-person plural conjugation, ils sentiraient. Be careful, because this is also the same pronunciation as the first-person singular conjugation in le futur simple: je sentirai.
Sentir conjugation: conditionnel présent
| Subject | sentir: conditionnel présent |
| je | sentirais |
| tu | sentirais |
| il, elle, on | sentirait |
| nous | sentirions |
| vous | sentiriez |
| ils, elles | sentiraient |
Sentir conjugation: conditionnel passé
| Subject | sentir: conditionnel passé |
| j’ | aurais senti |
| tu | aurais senti |
| il, elle, on | aurait senti |
| nous | aurions senti |
| vous | auriez senti |
| ils, elles | auraient senti |
Sentir conjugation: Subjunctive mood
Now we’re ready to cover the sentir subjonctif conjugations. We’ll start with the two subjunctive tenses that are used in contemporary French, le subjonctif présent and le subjonctif passé. Then we’ll cover the two archaic subjunctive tenses, l’imparfait du subjonctif and le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif.
Sentir conjugation: subjonctif présent
We can consider our subjunctive sentir conjugation to be regular, with its stem of sent- and the regular subjunctive endings.
Whereas the indicative sentir conjugations of je and tu were spelled identically, here it’s the je and il/elle conjugations that are identical. All three singular conjugations are still pronounced identically, along with the third-person plural: je sente vs tu sentes vs il sente vs ils sentent.
The third-person plural subjunctive conjugation is spelled and pronounced identically to its counterpart in the présent de l’indicatif: ils sentent.
| Subject | sentir: subjonctif présent |
| que je | sente |
| que tu | sentes |
| qu’il, qu’elle, qu’on | sente |
| que nous | sentions |
| que vous | sentiez |
| qu’ils, qu’elles | sentent |
Sentir conjugation: subjonctif passé
| Subject | sentir: subjonctif passé |
| que j’ | aie senti |
| que tu | aies senti |
| qu’il, qu’elle, qu’on | ait senti |
| que nous | ayons senti |
| que vous | ayez senti |
| qu’ils, qu’elles | aient senti |
Sentir conjugation: subjonctif imparfait
| Subject | sentir: subjonctif imparfait |
| que je | sentisse |
| que tu | sentisses |
| qu’il, qu’elle, qu’on | sentît |
| que nous | sentissions |
| que vous | sentissiez |
| qu’ils, qu’elles | sentissent |
Sentir conjugation: subjonctif plus-que-parfait
| Subject | sentir: subjonctif plus-que-parfait |
| que j’ | eusse senti |
| que tu | eusses senti |
| qu’il, qu’elle, qu’on | eût senti |
| que nous | eussions senti |
| que vous | eussiez senti |
| qu’ils, qu’elles | eussent senti |
Sentir conjugation: Imperative mood
We’re nearly done with all of our sentir conjugations, with just the command form remaining in case you need to tell someone to smell or to feel something in French.
In the sentir imperatif présent, we use the exact same conjugations as sentir présent de l’indicatif.
We present both impératif tenses in the same sentir conjugation chart here.
| Subject | sentir: impératif présent | sentir: impératif passé |
| [tu] | sens | aie senti |
| [nous] | sentons | ayons senti |
| [vous] | sentez | ayez senti |
Conclusion: Sentir conjugation in French
We’ve just seen the full conjugation charts for the French verb sentir, in every mood and tense.
For the most part, the sentir conjugation French offers us is fairly regular. The main irregular rule to know is that the regular stem of sent- loses its -t- in the two common present tense conjugations: je sens and tu sens. The other main challenge is to differentiate between the many homophones and always choose the correct ending depending on the grammatical person and the tense.
Our focus was on sentir, but the same conjugations apply to a number of other verbs including mentir, sortir, partir, départir, ressentir, pressentir, consentir, and more. Likewise, the same conjugations can apply to reflexive verbs such as se sentir, se ressentir, or se repentir, with their compound forms taking the auxiliary verb être and the correct participle endings.
Between all these tenses of sentir in French, as well as the application of the same conjugations to several other verbs, you’re now prepared to correctly spell and pronounce so many common verbs in French!