🖨️ Print-friendly: use Ctrl+P (⌘P) or your browser menu to print this chart cleanly.
📚 This is the overview. « ouvrir » is taught level by level — pick your CEFR level below for a full lesson (explanation, pronunciation, exercises & games).
Five phrases with « ouvrir » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
Ouvrir — to open — is filed under -ir and conjugates like neither -ir family: its present wears -er endings. J’ouvre, tu ouvres, il ouvre, nous ouvrons, vous ouvrez, ils ouvrent — parler’s endings on an -ir infinitive, the little disguise that catches every learner once. The imparfait (j’ouvrais), futur (j’ouvrirai) and subjonctif (que j’ouvre) hold no surprises; the past participle does: ouvert — j’ai ouvert — with the -ert shape it shares across its whole family: offrir → offert (offered), découvrir → découvert (discovered), souffrir → souffert (suffered), couvrir → couvert (the word on every French table setting: le couvert).
The family is the lesson: four everyday verbs — open, offer, discover, suffer — one conjugation, one participle shape, and between them most of a dramatic evening. Daily-life anchors: « le magasin ouvre à 9h » (shops open — ouvrir standing intransitive), « on t’a offert quoi ? » (what did you get? — offrir owns gifts in French: one offers rather than gives them), « j’ai découvert un super resto » (the food-culture verb of happy accidents). Sign-reading bonus: ouvert / fermé on every door in France — the participle as infrastructure. Drill the four participles in one sentence of gossip — on a ouvert, offert, découvert, souffert — and the -ert family files itself.
Historical accident: its Latin stem ended in -r + vowel, landing the present on -e endings. Offrir, découvrir, souffrir, couvrir all follow — j’offre, je découvre.
« Ouvert » — j’ai ouvert, and the shop-door adjective: ouvert/fermé. Family matches: offert, découvert, souffert, couvert.
« Le magasin ouvre à neuf heures » — ouvrir goes intransitive for opening hours. Closing: « il ferme à 19h ».
J’___ la porte. (present — like an -er verb!)
ouvre
passé composé : tu as ___ (irregular participle)
ouvert
« offrir » : elle m’a ___ un livre. (same family)
offert
tu ___ (Ouvrir — passé composé)
as ouvert
il ___ (Ouvrir — imperfect)
ouvrait
nous ___ (Ouvrir — future)
ouvrirons
vous ___ (Ouvrir — conditional)
ouvririez
Go further: this chart is one small piece — get the full picture in our guide Master the present tense — the full beginner guide.
j’ouvre, tu ouvres, il / elle ouvre, nous ouvrons, vous ouvrez, ils / elles ouvrent. Full charts for every tense are above, each form with audio.
ouvert — the passé composé is « j’ai ouvert ». Ouvrir uses avoir as its auxiliary verb.
« j’ouvrirai » — the future stem never changes across persons, only the endings do.
to open. 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:
« ouvrir » at every CEFR level — the tense, its forms and the mechanic that makes it stick. Practise it with the free games →