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📚 This is the overview. « croire » is taught level by level — pick your CEFR level below for a full lesson (explanation, pronunciation, exercises & games).
Five phrases with « croire » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
Croire — to believe, to think — runs the same y/i dance as voir: je crois, tu crois, il croit, then nous croyons, vous croyez (the y appears with the syllable), ils croient. The imparfait keeps the y throughout (je croyais), the futur drops back to i (je croirai), and the subjonctif — que je croie — is invisible to the ear, identical to the indicative. The passé composé is j’ai cru: « j’ai cru que tu partais » — I thought you were leaving — the tense of corrected impressions, which is most of what believing does in conversation.
Croire is the opinion machine of spoken French: je crois que (I think that — softer than je pense que, same indicative-vs-subjunctive behaviour: affirmative takes indicative, « je ne crois pas que » takes subjunctive), je crois alone as “I believe so”, and the preposition split worth learning once: croire à = believe in the existence of (croire aux fantômes), croire en = have faith in (croire en toi). Add the reflexive « il se croit malin » (he thinks he’s clever) and the eternal « c’est à ne pas croire ! » (unbelievable!) and this table talks philosophy, gossip and doubt with equal fluency. Drill: state three opinions with je crois que, deny one with je ne crois pas que + subjunctive — the whole verb in one exercise.
« Cru » — j’ai cru. Not to be confused with the wine sense of cru (growth/vintage), which French enjoys enormously at tastings.
À = believe it exists (croire au Père Noël); en = trust/have faith in (je crois en vous). For God, tradition uses en: croire en Dieu.
Yes: je ne crois pas qu’il vienne. Affirmative je crois que stays indicative — belief asserted vs belief doubted, the same rule as penser.
Je crois que c’___ (être) vrai. (indicative!)
est
believe IN someone = croire ___ quelqu’un (preposition)
en
passé composé : j’ai ___ (participle)
cru
je ___ (Croire — present)
crois
tu ___ (Croire — passé composé)
as cru
il ___ (Croire — imperfect)
croyait
nous ___ (Croire — future)
croirons
vous ___ (Croire — conditional)
croiriez
Go further: Master the present tense — the full beginner guide.
je crois, tu crois, il / elle croit, nous croyons, vous croyez, ils / elles croient. Full charts for every tense are above, each form with audio.
cru — the passé composé is « j’ai cru ». Croire uses avoir as its auxiliary verb.
« je croirai » — the future stem never changes across persons, only the endings do.
to believe. 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:
« croire » at every CEFR level — the tense, its forms and the mechanic that makes it stick. Practise it with the free games →