French participles and gerunds (which are a type of present participle) are forms of a verb that are not conjugated, but which can still modify a subject in the sentence. This means participles and gerunds are non-finite verb forms. You may already be familiar with another type of non-finite verb form: the French infinitive.
Participles and gerunds are used in a variety of ways in French. You’ve likely encountered the past participle when learning about compound tenses or the passive voice. Participles and gerunds can also be used as adjectives, as nouns, to express a cause, and to modify the other verbs in the sentence, among other uses!
This post focuses on how to form and how to use the participle (past and present) and the gerund in French. Take a look at their different forms below:
the participle:
past participle: chanté meaning sang, perdu meaning lost, suivi meaning followed
present participle: chantant meaning singing, perdant meaning losing, suivant meaning following
the gerund*: en chantant meaning while singing, en perdant meaning while losing, en suivant meaning while following
Curious to learn more? Let’s dig in!
What are participles in French?
There are two types of French participles: past and present. Past participles are forms of a verb which take the endings -é, -u, -i when regular, whereas present participles use the ending -ant.
Let’s take a closer look at each type.
How to form and use past participles in French?
The French past participle is formed using the endings -é, -u, or -i. Take a look at the verbs envoyer meaning to send, revenir meaning to come back, and choisir meaning to choose in their past participle forms:
envoyé meaning sent
revenu meaning come back
choisi meaning chosen
English uses past participles too, both regular (“walked”) and irregular (“gone”). Like English, French also possesses some irregular past participles, which you’ll want to learn by heart.
The past participle is used in three different structures: compound tenses, the passive voice, and as an adjective.
How to use past participles in compound tenses?
In compound tenses in French, the past participle is used in combination with the auxiliary verbs être meaning to be or avoir meaning to have. Here are some examples:
| Compound tense | French |
|---|---|
passé composé | Le chien a couru jusqu’à lui. Translation: The dog ran up to him. |
plus-que-parfait | Elle était montée* à pied. Translation: She had gone up on foot. |
conditionnel passé | Vous auriez mieux dormi. Translation: You would have slept better. |
How to use past participles to form the passive voice?
The past participle is used to create the passive voice in French when used in combination with être meaning to be conjugated in the past, present, or future. Let’s take a look at some examples:
How to use past participles as adjectives?
Past participles can also be used as an adjective in French, and the English translation will either be an adjective, a past participle, or a present participle, depending on the sentence. Here are some examples of adjectives that are past participles in French:
Now that we’ve seen how to use past participles in French, let’s move on to the present participle!
How to form and use present participles in French?
A present participle is formed using the ending -ant. Take a look at the verbs envoyer meaning to send, revenir meaning to come back, and choisir meaning to choose in their present participle forms:
envoyant meaning sending
revenant meaning coming back
choisissant meaning choosing
The present participle is used similarly to the “-ing” verb form in English or as an adjective. However, the French present participle is not used as commonly as the “-ing” form in English, and, regardless of its uses in French, it is important to remember that you will always use another French verb — conjugated in the “classic” way with a subject — in the same sentence.
Forming the French present participle involves two steps:
Take the nous form of the verb in the present tense → nous parlons meaning we speak
Drop the ending -ons and replace it with -ant → parlant meaning speaking
Now that you know how to form the present participle (and its irregular forms), let’s look at each of its uses one by one. Ready?
How to use the present participle to replace a ‘qui’ clause?
The French present participle can be used in formal, written contexts to bring some variety to a piece of writing, instead of a qui clause, which can be bulky!
✋ Explanation: the verb avoir meaning to have from the relative qui clause in sentence (1) takes the form of the present participle in sentence (2). Notice that you need to replace the whole phrase qui + verb with the present participle. Let’s see another example:
How to use a present participle to express a cause?
If you want to give a reason for something, you can use the present participle in French, in the same way as you would use it in English:
How to use a present participle as an adjective?
As an adjective, the present participle is like the past participle: it must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies.
How to use a present participle as a noun?
Sometimes present participles are used as a noun in French. Can you think of any nouns ending in -ant? Here are a few: un étudiant meaning student, un enseignant meaning teacher, un participant meaning participant, un commerçant meaning storekeeper. Perhaps you never realized before that these are actually present participles!
These example nouns come from the verbs étudier meaning to study, enseigner meaning to teach, participer meaning to participate, and commercer meaning to trade.
Differences in using present participles in French versus in English
We’ve seen in the uses of French present participles above that the present participle does not always translate to the “-ing” form in English; let’s take a closer look at the differences in how present participles are used in English versus in French.
English uses the present participle to express the present progressive, but French uses either the present tense or être en train de + infinitive:
“He’s coding.”
✅ Il code → present tense
✅ Il est en train de coder → être en train de+ infinitive
❌ Il est codant.
Unlike in English, you can’t use a present participle after a conjugated verb in French. Instead, you should use the infinitive:
“They like skydiving.”
✅ Ils aiment sauter en parachute.
❌ Ils aiment sautant en parachute.
If you would like to practice using the infinitive and participle forms of the verb, try these activities! Now, we have one final use of the present participle to look at: the gerund.
What are gerunds in French?
French gerunds are a form of the present participle, ending in -ant, and they always follow the preposition en. Some examples of gerunds in French are:
en envoyant meaning while/upon/by sending
en revenant meaning while/upon/by coming back
en choisissant meaning while/upon/by choosing
Can you guess which verbs these come from? If you said envoyer, revenir, and choisir, you’d be right! To form the gerunds above, we simply combined the preposition en with the present participle of the verb.
What’s the difference between gerunds and present participles, then? The gerund modifies a verb, whereas the present participle modifies a noun or a pronoun. Let’s look at an example:
- On a regardé le chien marchant dans le parc.Translation: We watched the dog walking in the park.
- On a regardé le chien en marchant dans le parc.Translation: We watched the dog while walking in the park.
Because of this unique aspect of the gerund, there are several uses for it in French. Keep reading!
How to use the gerund to talk about simultaneous actions?
Gerunds are used in French to modify other verbs in the sentence, which means they can be used to talk about two actions happening simultaneously. Using the gerund to describe two actions happening is equivalent to using “while/upon + verb-ing” in English.
However, not the gerund will not always be split to accommodate a pronoun. See the exception below:
How to use the gerund to express a cause or means of doing something
When you want to explain how or why something is happening, use the gerund to express “by” or “because” in English.
In these examples above, the gerund answers the question Comment… ? meaning How...?.
How to use the gerund to express a condition?
Finally, you can also use the gerund in French as an equivalent to using “if” in English to express a condition. Take a look:
Let's recap!
When using past and present participles, as well as gerunds, in French, keep the following tips in mind:
| Non-finite verb form | Uses |
|---|---|
Past participle |
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Present participle |
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Gerund |
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To practice French participles and gerunds, along with the other type of non-finite verbs, infinitives, check out our activities!
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