Venir Conjugation: Every Tense With Examples

Venir means to come, and it does far more work than its English translation suggests. It tells people where you are from (je viens de Chicago), invites a friend over (tu viens ?), and builds one of the most useful structures in spoken French: je viens de finir, "I just finished". The problem is that it is irregular, and its forms jump between viens, venons and viennent in a way that trips up almost every beginner.

This page gives you the full venir conjugation in every tense you actually need, with a pronunciation hint for the tricky forms, 10 real example sentences, the expressions built on venir, and the mistakes I correct most often in lessons, including one that comes straight from high school Spanish.

Venir conjugation in the present tense

Learn this table first. You will use it every day.

The University of Texas French program describes venir as a verb with two stems: vien- for the singular forms and ils viennent, and ven- for nous and vous. Once you see that shape (the "boot" pattern many teachers draw), the table stops looking random.

Now the sound. Viens and vient end in a nasal vowel: you do not pronounce the n. In viennent, the double n kills the nasal and you hear a clear n sound: vyen. The final -ent stays silent, as in every ils form.

Tip from class: say il vient and ils viennent back to back, ten times, with your hand on your nose. On vient you feel a buzz (nasal). On viennent the buzz stops. That tiny difference is how a listener knows whether you mean one person or several.

Venir in the passé composé: always with être

Larousse puts it in four words: toujours avec l'auxiliaire être. Venir never takes avoir.

Because the helper is être, the past participle venu agrees with the subject, like an adjective: Marie est venue, mes parents sont venus, mes sœurs sont venues. In speech you cannot hear the difference, but on a written exam every missing e or s costs you.

Venir is also one of the verbs on the "être list" (with aller, arriver, partir, devenir, revenir and the rest). If you want the whole list and a memory trick for it, our être conjugation guide has it.

The plus-que-parfait follows the same logic with être in the imparfait: j'étais venu(e), "I had come".

Venir in the imparfait: je venais

The imparfait is regular once you know the nous form: take venons, drop -ons, add the imparfait endings.

Use it for habits and background: Quand j'étais petite, ma grand-mère venait tous les dimanches (When I was little, my grandmother used to come every Sunday). If you are not sure when to pick je venais over je suis venu, our guide to passé composé vs imparfait walks through that choice.

Venir in the future and the conditional

Both tenses use the irregular stem viendr-. Notice the d: it is not in the infinitive, and it is the most common spelling mistake on this verb.

Say viendrai as vyan-DRAY, with the nasal vyan at the start.

In daily conversation, the near future is often more natural: je vais venir, "I'm going to come". Our article on the futur proche vs futur simple explains when each one sounds right.

The conditional is your polite tool: Tu viendrais avec nous ? (Would you come with us?) sounds softer than tu viens ?, and je viendrais bien, mais… (I'd love to come, but…) is the classic way to turn down an invitation kindly.

Venir in the subjunctive and the imperative

Good news: que nous venions and que vous veniez are spelled exactly like the imparfait. You only have four new forms to learn, and they all sound like vyen. You need them after phrases like il faut que, je veux que and pour que: Je veux que tu viennes à ma fête (I want you to come to my party).

The imperative has three forms: viens, venons, venez. Viens ici ! (Come here!), Venez nous voir ! (Come and see us!). Viens ! on its own is also how French speakers say "Come on!" when they are waiting for you at the door.

The remaining forms: present participle venant (coming), past participle venu (come). In novels you will also meet the passé simple, il vint, ils vinrent. You need to recognize it when reading, not to use it.

Venir de + infinitive: "I just did it"

This is the single most useful thing venir does. Conjugate venir in the present, add de, then an infinitive, and you get the recent past:

• Je viens de manger. I just ate.
• Elle vient d'arriver. She just arrived.
• Nous venons de finir le cours. We just finished the class.

Put venir in the imparfait and it moves one step back in time. The University of Texas grammar notes that in the imparfait the structure means "had just": je venais de partir quand tu as appelé, I had just left when you called.

Tip from class: my students translate "I just ate" as j'ai juste mangé. French hears that as "I only ate" (nothing else). Whenever you want to say "just" in the sense of "a moment ago", reach for venir de.

Do not confuse it with venir + infinitive with no de, which means "to come to do something": je viens te chercher à six heures (I'm coming to pick you up at six). One little word, two very different meanings.

10 example sentences with venir

1. Je viens de Toronto, et vous ? I'm from Toronto, and you?
2. Tu viens avec nous au cinéma ? Are you coming with us to the movies?
3. Le train vient de partir. The train just left.
4. Ils viennent dîner samedi soir. They're coming for dinner on Saturday night.
5. Elle est venue en voiture. She came by car.
6. Nous venions souvent ici quand nous étions étudiants. We used to come here often when we were students.
7. Je viendrai te voir à Montréal en janvier. I'll come to see you in Montréal in January.
8. Vous viendriez à la réunion si elle était lundi ? Would you come to the meeting if it were on Monday?
9. Il faut que tu viennes tôt. You need to come early.
10. D'où vient ce mot ? Where does this word come from?

Everyday expressions with venir

The venir family: learn one, get seven

The same pattern works for a whole group of verbs. The University of Texas list includes devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), tenir (to hold), obtenir (to get) and retenir (to hold back); se souvenir (to remember) and appartenir (to belong) belong here too: je deviens, je reviens, je me souviens, je tiens, j'obtiens, ils appartiennent.

The one trap is the helper verb in the past. Devenir, revenir and se souvenir take être like venir (elle est devenue, je me suis souvenu). Tenir, obtenir, retenir and appartenir take avoir: j'ai obtenu mon visa, I got my visa.

Common mistakes English speakers make

• Mistake: J'ai venu. → Say instead: Je suis venu(e). Venir always takes être.
• Mistake: Elle est venu. → Say instead: Elle est venue. With être, the participle agrees.
• Mistake: Je venirai demain. → Say instead: Je viendrai demain. The future stem is viendr-.
• Mistake: Ils viennent pronounced like il vient. → Say instead: vyen, with a clear n. Otherwise nobody knows it is plural.
• Mistake: J'ai juste fini. for "I just finished". → Say instead: Je viens de finir.
• Mistake: Je vengo or je vins for "I come". → Say instead: Je viens. Those are Spanish habits (vengo, vine) sneaking in, and je vins is a literary passé simple in French, not a present.

Practice

Fill in the correct form of venir.

1. Vous ___ d'où ? (present)
2. Mes cousines ___ ___ hier soir. (passé composé)
3. Je ___ de finir mes devoirs. (present, recent past)
4. L'année prochaine, nous ___ en France. (future)
5. Je veux que tu ___ avec moi. (subjunctive)

Answers: 1. venez · 2. sont venues · 3. viens · 4. viendrons · 5. viennes

If these five felt easy, test yourself on devenir and revenir with the same sentences: the endings do not change. The free French Keys flashcards are a quick way to review the present forms for five minutes a day.

In short

Venir has two present stems (vien- and ven-), always takes être in the passé composé, and uses viendr- in the future and the conditional. Learn venir de + infinitive next, because it is how French people say "I just did it" dozens of times a day. To see venir next to the other verbs you need first, go to our list of the most common French verbs and the present tense conjugation guide.

If you would like someone to listen to your vient and viennent and tell you exactly what to fix, book a free 30-minute assessment with Magali. You will leave with a clear plan for the verbs and tenses that matter at your level.