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📚 This is the overview. « valoir » is taught level by level — pick your CEFR level below for a full lesson (explanation, pronunciation, exercises & games).
Five phrases with « valoir » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
Valoir — to be worth — is conjugated almost exclusively by things rather than people, which makes its table mercifully third-person in practice: ça vaut (it’s worth), ils valent, imparfait ça valait, futur ça vaudra (the -audr- stem, cousin to falloir’s faudra), participle valu. The full paradigm exists (je vaux, tu vaux — poetic and rare), and the subjunctive vaille survives mostly in the fossil « vaille que vaille » (come what may). Its structural sibling falloir (il faut) is third-person ONLY — the pair patrol the same impersonal corner of French grammar.
Three constructions do all the work. Ça vaut combien ? — what’s it worth? — the market-stall companion to ça coûte combien. Ça vaut le coup — it’s worth it (literally worth the blow) — the phrase every recommendation hangs on: « le détour vaut le coup ». And il vaut mieux + infinitive — it’s better to — advice grammar one notch more elegant than c’est mieux: « il vaut mieux réserver » (better book ahead), past conditional « il aurait mieux valu » (it would have been better — regret, upgraded). Add the proverb « mieux vaut tard que jamais » (better late than never — valoir leading the sentence, as proverbs like) and this quiet verb prices, advises and philosophises across French daily life.
“It’s worth it” — worth the effort/trip/price: « ça vaut le coup d’essayer ». Negative: ça ne vaut pas le coup — don’t bother.
Coûter is the price asked; valoir the value held. « Ça coûte 100 €, mais ça vaut 50 » is a complete piece of shopping criticism.
“It’s better to…” + infinitive: il vaut mieux attendre. The impersonal advice formula, one register above c’est mieux de.
it’s better to leave = il ___ mieux partir (fixed structure)
vaut
it’s worth it = ça vaut le ___ (idiom)
coup
present, je : je ___ (like je peux? no: -x)
vaux
je ___ (Valoir — present)
vaux
tu ___ (Valoir — passé composé)
as valu
il ___ (Valoir — imperfect)
valait
nous ___ (Valoir — future)
vaudrons
vous ___ (Valoir — conditional)
vaudriez
Go further: How to learn French verbs — the pattern system.
je vaux, tu vaux, il / elle vaut, nous valons, vous valez, ils / elles valent. Full charts for every tense are above, each form with audio.
valu — the passé composé is « j’ai valu ». Valoir uses avoir as its auxiliary verb.
« je vaudrai » — the future stem never changes across persons, only the endings do.
to be worth. 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:
« valoir » at every CEFR level — the tense, its forms and the mechanic that makes it stick. Practise it with the free games →