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📚 This is the overview. « courir » is taught level by level — pick your CEFR level below for a full lesson (explanation, pronunciation, exercises & games).
Five phrases with « courir » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
Courir — to run — keeps a lean present: je cours, tu cours, il court, nous courons, vous courez, ils courent. Its signature is the future’s double r: je courrai (I will run) versus the imperfect je courais (I was running) — one letter, one sound-length apart, the same rr club as voir (verrai), pouvoir (pourrai) and mourir (mourrai). Passé composé j’ai couru — always avoir, however far the running moved you (movement verbs take être only when the MOTION is the whole point of the verb’s meaning class — courir describes the manner, so avoir it is; a genuinely useful rule of thumb for the auxiliary question). Subjonctif que je coure, imperative cours ! — as heard at every French school sports day.
The family and idioms give the chart its cardio: parcourir (to travel through / skim — j’ai parcouru l’article), accourir (come running), secourir (rescue — hence au secours !, help!). Idiomatically the French run everywhere they hurry: « je cours ! » (I’m rushing), « courir les magasins » (run around the shops), « le bruit court que… » (rumour has it — rumours run in French), and the immortal « laisse courir » — let it go, literally let it run. Drill: announce today’s hurry in three tenses — je cours, j’ai couru toute la journée, demain je courrai encore — and mind the double r; it’s the only thing standing between your future and your past.
Stem contraction: courir + ai collapsed to courr-. Je courrai (future) vs je courais (imperfect) — length of the r is the tense.
Avoir: j’ai couru. It describes how you move, not a change of location — so it sits out the être club that aller and partir belong to.
“Rumour has it” — noise runs in French. Related: « courir un risque » (run a risk), shared instinct with English.
future (double r!): demain je ___ (2 r)
courrai
imperfect (one r): avant je ___ (1 r)
courais
passé composé : elle a ___ (participle)
couru
je ___ (Courir — present)
cours
tu ___ (Courir — passé composé)
as couru
il ___ (Courir — imperfect)
courait
nous ___ (Courir — future)
courrons
vous ___ (Courir — conditional)
courriez
Go further: Master the present tense — the full beginner guide.
je cours, tu cours, il / elle court, nous courons, vous courez, ils / elles courent. Full charts for every tense are above, each form with audio.
couru — the passé composé is « j’ai couru ». Courir uses avoir as its auxiliary verb.
« je courrai » — the future stem never changes across persons, only the endings do.
to run. It is one of the essential French verbs — drill the present first, then the passé composé; those two tenses carry most conversations.
Games built from this exact page — turn what you just read into play:
« courir » at every CEFR level — the tense, its forms and the mechanic that makes it stick. Practise it with the free games →