Vouloir Conjugation: All Tenses + Irregular Stems

Vouloir means “to want,” and it is irregular. The present is je veux, tu veux, il veut, nous voulons, vous voulez, ils veulent. Five stems do the work: veu- in the singular, veul- for ils, voul- for nous and vous, voudr- for the future and the conditional, and veuill- for the subjunctive, except nous and vous.

Present, passé composé, imparfait, future, and conditional are on the vouloir conjugation page. The nous form is the one that slips: the present is voulons. Veuillons is a rare command, and it does not fill that slot.

The five stems

Name the job first, then the stem. The endings are ordinary once the stem is right.

Pouvoir makes a similar split: peux, pouvons, pourrai. That set is on the pouvoir conjugation page. On vouloir, the future stem keeps the d: je voudrai. Je voulrai leaves that d out.

Je veux and il veut sound the same. The vowel is the one in deux, and the final x and t are silent. Ils veulent is different: the l is pronounced, -ent is silent, and the vowel is the open eu of peur. Veuille and veuillent also sound the same, because -ent is silent and ill is the y sound in feuille.

Action step: Say four forms out loud before you look down: je veux, nous voulons, je voudrais, que je veuille. If nous came out as veuillons, that was the command. Say voulons again.

Present: veux, veut, voulons, veulent

The singular is veu-. Ils and elles are veul-. Nous and vous are voul-. On takes the il form: on veut. On voulons is not a French form.

Je veux partir. 🔊 (I want to leave.)

Tu veux venir avec nous ? 🔊 (Do you want to come with us?)

On veut partir maintenant. 🔊 (We want to leave now.)

Nous voulons rester ici. 🔊 (We want to stay here.)

Vous voulez du café ? 🔊 (Do you want some coffee?)

Ils veulent une maison plus grande. 🔊 (They want a bigger house.)

On veut is the everyday “we.” Nous voulons is the same idea in a more formal sentence, or in writing. Both are correct. On still uses veut.

A noun after vouloir often takes the partitive. Negation switches du to de.

Je veux du café. 🔊 (I want some coffee.)

Je ne veux pas de café. 🔊 (I don’t want any coffee.)

Written French keeps ne. In conversation you will hear je veux pas. A direct object pronoun sits in front of the verb: je le veux for a masculine thing, je la veux for a feminine one.

Je le veux. 🔊 (I want it.)

Je la veux. 🔊 (I want it. The thing is feminine.)

Three questions ask the same thing. In conversation, the voice rises at the end of the statement. Inversion fits writing.

Tu veux venir ? 🔊 (Do you want to come?)

Est-ce que tu veux venir ? 🔊 (Do you want to come?)

Veux-tu venir ? 🔊 (Do you want to come?)

When you are the person who does the next action, use the infinitive. Je veux partir. When someone else does it, use que and the subjunctive, further down.

Action step: Cover the French column. Write the six presents from the pronouns. Then write on veut under il veut, so on does not pick up voulons.

Passé composé and imparfait

Both are past. They do not tell the same story. Vouloir takes avoir, and the participle is voulu.

Je elides: j’ai voulu, not je ai voulu. In nous avons voulu and vous avez voulu, the s of nous and vous is pronounced as a z before the vowel.

The imparfait is the voul- stem plus the ordinary endings. None of these forms takes an accent.

Je voulais is the wish as a state. It was there in the background. It may never have turned into an action.

Quand j’étais enfant, je voulais un chien. 🔊 (When I was a child, I wanted a dog.)

Je voulais un café, pas un thé. 🔊 (I wanted a coffee, not a tea.)

J’ai voulu presents the wanting as a completed act. Often that means you tried, or that you decided and then acted. It does not always mean “tried.” If the sentence shows no attempt, “wanted” is the right English.

J’ai voulu ouvrir la porte, mais elle était fermée. 🔊 (I tried to open the door, but it was shut.)

Here the trying is the point, and the door stayed shut. Elle is the door. J’ai voulu ce livre, pas l’autre can simply mean you chose that book. Read the rest of the sentence before you translate voulu as “tried.”

Nous voulions and vous vouliez show up again in the subjunctive, with the same spelling. Nous voulions partir on its own is the imparfait: we wanted to leave. Il faut que nous voulions partir is the subjunctive. The words around them show which tense you have.

Action step: Write two lines with the same infinitive. Je voulais partir is the wish. J’ai voulu partir is the wish you acted on. Say which one goes with mais la porte était fermée.

Future and conditional: the voudr- stem

Future and conditional share voudr-. The future endings are -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. The conditional endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. None of these forms takes an accent.

You will not say je voudrai as often as je voudrais. The future places the want at a later time.

Dans dix ans, ils voudront une maison plus grande. 🔊 (In ten years, they will want a bigger house.)

Un jour, tu voudras savoir pourquoi. 🔊 (One day, you will want to know why.)

In a request, je voudrais means “I would like.” Je veux states the want directly. Both are grammatical. At a counter, je voudrais is the one that sounds like a request.

Je voudrais un café, s’il vous plaît. 🔊 (I would like a coffee, please.)

Nous voudrions une table pour deux. 🔊 (We would like a table for two.)

The travel phrases built on that contrast, je veux against je voudrais in shops and cafés, are in why vouloir matters for tourists. This page stays with the stems.

Voudrai and voudrais are one letter apart. In careful speech, and across much of the south, -ai is a closed e and -ais is an open è. Many speakers in northern France pronounce the two endings alike. Write the s when the form is conditional.

A si-clause does not take the conditional. The present after si pairs with the future. The imparfait after si pairs with the conditional.

Si tu veux, nous partirons. 🔊 (If you want, we will leave.)

Si je voulais partir, je te le dirais. 🔊 (If I wanted to leave, I would tell you.)

Si je voudrais does not make that sentence. The conditional, dirais, belongs in the result.

Present subjunctive: veuille, except nous and vous

Que je veuille, que tu veuilles, qu’il veuille, qu’ils veuillent. The stem is veuill-. Nous and vous stay on voul-: que nous voulions, que vous vouliez. Those two spellings are identical to the imparfait. The clause around them shows which tense you have.

Que elides before il, elle, on, ils, elles: qu’il veuille, qu’elle veuille, qu’on veuille, qu’ils veuillent. Que je, que tu, que nous, que vous stay as they are.

Vouloir que is the trigger you will use most. When the subject changes, vouloir takes que, and the verb after que is in the subjunctive.

Je veux que tu viennes avec nous. 🔊 (I want you to come with us.)

Je ne veux pas que tu partes. 🔊 (I don’t want you to leave.)

Je veux que tu viens uses the indicative. After vouloir que, that form does not belong. The subjunctive of venir here is viennes. The subjunctive of partir here is partes.

Same subject: use the infinitive. Different subject: use que plus the subjunctive.

The subjunctive of vouloir itself appears after a trigger such as bien que or il faut que.

Bien qu’il veuille partir, il ne part pas. 🔊 (Although he wants to leave, he isn’t leaving.)

Il faut que tu veuilles vraiment ce travail. 🔊 (You really have to want this job.)

Bien que nous voulions partir, nous ne partons pas. 🔊 (Although we want to leave, we aren’t leaving.)

That last voulions is voul-, the same letters as the imparfait. Veuillions is nonstandard; write voulions. Veuille and veuillent sound alike. Veuilles adds the s you write for tu, and you do not hear it.

Vouloir dire, en vouloir à, bien vouloir

Three uses are worth knowing beside “to want.” They still conjugate with the same stems.

Vouloir dire means “to mean.”

Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire ? 🔊 (What does that mean?)

Je veux dire que c’est trop tard. 🔊 (I mean that it’s too late.)

En vouloir à quelqu’un means to hold a grudge, or to be upset with someone. Keep the en in the phrase.

Je lui en veux. 🔊 (I’m upset with him or her.)

Tu m’en veux ? 🔊 (Are you upset with me?)

Je lui en ai voulu. 🔊 (I held it against him or her.)

Bien vouloir expresses willingness. Je veux bien accepts or agrees. It is not the blunt je veux you soften to je voudrais at a counter.

Je veux bien t’aider. 🔊 (Sure, I’ll help you.)

Tu veux bien fermer la fenêtre ? 🔊 (Would you mind closing the window?)

Plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, conditionnel passé

These three are avoir plus voulu. Learn j’aurais voulu properly. Treat the other two as forms you can recognise and build when you need them.

The plus-que-parfait is the imparfait of avoir plus voulu. The want sits further back than another past moment.

J’avais voulu te le dire avant de partir. 🔊 (I had wanted to tell you before leaving.)

The conditionnel passé is the conditional of avoir plus voulu. J’aurais voulu is the one you will actually say.

J’aurais voulu rester. 🔊 (I would have liked to stay.)

The wish was not fulfilled. A past hypothetical uses the plus-que-parfait after si, and this tense in the result.

Si j’avais voulu partir, je l’aurais dit. 🔊 (If I had wanted to leave, I would have said so.)

The futur antérieur is the future of avoir plus voulu. As a real “will have wanted” timeline, it is uncommon with this verb. The use you meet is a guess about the past.

Il aura voulu nous surprendre. 🔊 (He must have wanted to surprise us.)

That is a supposition, the same pattern as il aura oublié, which means “he must have forgotten.” It is not the past conditional. Il aurait voulu means he would have wanted to.

Passé simple and the imperfect subjunctive

These two are for reading. You do not need them to speak. The stem is voul- throughout. The circumflex sits on the nous and vous forms in the passé simple, and on the il/elle/on form in the imperfect subjunctive.

Il voulut partir aussitôt. 🔊 (He wanted to leave at once. Literary narrative.)

Je voulus and tu voulus have no circumflex. Ils voulurent has none either. The accent is only on voulûmes and voulûtes.

Bien qu’elle voulût partir, elle ne partit pas. 🔊 (Although she wanted to leave, she did not leave. Literary.)

You recognise voulût by the circumflex, and voulusse by the double s. You do not need them to speak. A concession in the present is bien qu’elle veuille partir. For a wish already in the past, modern French uses the subjonctif passé: bien qu’elle ait voulu partir. Leave voulût for reading.

Imperative and the two participles

The usual commands are built on veuill-, including nous. Only veuillez is common. It is a polite frame in front of an infinitive: veuillez plus the verb you are asking for. Veuille and veuillons are real, and rare. You will almost never need to produce them.

Veuillez patienter un instant. 🔊 (Please wait a moment.)

Veuillez fermer la porte. 🔊 (Please close the door.)

Veuillez is not voulez. Vous voulez is the present, a statement or a question. The polite command is veuillez. A plain imperative, veux, voulons, voulez, shows up in the negative of en vouloir: ne m’en veux pas, ne m’en voulez pas. There is no je or ils imperative.

The present participle is voulant. The past participle is voulu. With avoir, and with no direct object in front, voulu does not change.

Voulant partir tôt, elle a pris le premier train. 🔊 (Wanting to leave early, she took the first train.)

En voulant aider, il a fait une erreur. 🔊 (In trying to help, he made a mistake.)

En voulant is the gérondif: en followed by the present participle. Voulant alone can open the sentence, as in the train example.

When a direct object comes before the verb, and no infinitive follows, voulu agrees with that object. When an infinitive follows, voulu stays voulu.

La robe que j’ai voulue est rouge. 🔊 (The dress I wanted is red.)

La robe que j’ai voulu acheter est rouge. 🔊 (The dress I wanted to buy is red.)

Voulue matches robe. Voulu acheter does not change, because acheter follows. A masculine plural object takes -s: les livres qu’elle a voulus.

As an adjective, voulu means deliberate, and it agrees like any adjective.

C’est un choix voulu. 🔊 (It’s a deliberate choice.)

C’est une absence voulue. 🔊 (It’s a deliberate absence.)

Mistakes that keep coming back

The wrong person on a stem you know. Je voulez mixes je with the vous form. Je veux. Vous voulez. Nous voulons. On veut, with the il form.

Veuille in the present. The present of je is veux. Veuille is the subjunctive, and the rare tu command. Que je veux after a subjunctive trigger is the indicative sitting where veuille belongs.

Nous veuillons as the present, or nous veuillions as the subjunctive. The present is nous voulons. The subjunctive is que nous voulions. Veuillons is the rare nous command, not either of those.

The indicative after vouloir que. Je veux que tu viens leaves venir in the present indicative. The sentence is je veux que tu viennes. Je ne veux pas que tu partes, with partes, not pars.

The conditional after si. Si je voudrais puts the conditional in the wrong clause. Si je voulais, je partirais. For a past hypothesis, si j’avais voulu partir, je l’aurais dit.

A missing d on voudr-. Je voulrai and je voulrais drop the d. The stem is voudr-: je voudrai, je voudrais. Nous voudrons is the future. Nous voulons is the present.

A polite request left in the present. Je veux un café at a counter states a want. Je voudrais un café makes it a request. The phrase side of that choice is the tourist post linked above.

Drill these before you trust the chart

Say the answer, then open it. Each prompt has one sentence that fits.

Action step: Answer all six out loud before you open them. Then say the pair that carries the stem: je veux, je voudrais, que je veuille, que nous voulions.

The wider map of French verbs is the French verb guide. Come back and produce vouloir from memory, one of the five core tenses a day, until voudr- stops losing its d.