How to Conjugate Utiliser (to Use) in French

In French, the verb  utiliser  means to use. This is pretty easy to remember because it looks and sounds like the English word utilize. French students will be happy to know that the conjugations are almost as easy. Thats because its a regular verb, so transforming  utiliser  into the French for using or used follows a very common rule. This lesson will explain everything you need to know. The Basic Conjugations of  Utiliser French verb conjugations are a bit of a challenge because you have to memorize a new verb for every tense as well as every subject pronoun within that tense. This gives you five extra words to study, but  utiliser  is a  regular -er verb. It uses the same infinitive endings as the majority of French verbs, making each new one easier to memorize. The indicative mood is where we find the basic present, future, and imperfect past tenses. These should be your top priority when studying  utiliser. Using the stem (or radical)  utilis-  and the chart, match the subject pronoun to the appropriate tense to find the proper ending. For instance, I am using is  jutilise  and we will use is  nous utiliserons. If you practice these in context using short sentences it will help you learn them faster. Luckily,  utiliser  is such a useful word that youll have endless opportunities to use it. Present Future Imperfect j utilise utiliserai utilisais tu utilises utiliseras utilisais il utilise utilisera utilisait nous utilisons utiliserons utilisions vous utilisez utiliserez utilisiez ils utilisent utiliseront utilisaient The Present Participle of Utiliser The  present participle  of  utiliser  is  utilisant. This was created by simply adding -ant  to the verb stem. Thats another rule you can keep in mind that works for almost every verb ending in -er. Utiliser  in the Compound Past Tense When it comes to the past tense, you have the choice between the imperfect or a compound known as the passà © composà ©. This one requires a quick construction using the auxiliary verb avoir and the past participle utilisà ©. When forming the passà © composà ©, conjugate  avoir  into the present tense appropriate to the subject. Then, attach the past participle, which indicates the act of using already happened. For example, I used is  jai utilisà ©Ã‚  and we used is  nous avons utilisà ©. More Simple Conjugations of Utiliser Among the other useful and equally simple conjugations of  utiliser  that you may need are  the subjunctive  and  the conditional. Where the subjunctive questions that the action will take place, the conditional says that its dependent on something else. While its not a bad idea to add the  the passà © simple  or  imperfect subjunctive  to your vocabulary, its often not a necessity. These are used only on occasion, but you should be able to at least recognize each as a form of  utiliser. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j utilise utiliserais utilisai utilisasse tu utilises utiliserais utilisas utilisasses il utilise utiliserait utilisa utilist nous utilisions utiliserions utilismes utilisassions vous utilisiez utiliseriez utilistes utilisassiez ils utilisent utiliseraient utilisrent utilisassent The one conjugation that does not require the subject pronoun is the imperative. For this, you can simplify your sentence from tu utilise to utilise. Imperative (tu) utilise (nous) utilisons (vous) utilisez