Permettre Conjugation in French: Full Charts, Rules & Common Mistakes

The French verb permettre translates primarily to to allow, to permit, or to enable. As one of the most frequently used verbs in professional, academic, and everyday French, understanding how to conjugate it accurately is essential for any French learner.

In this comprehensive guide, our certified native instructors at my-french.com break down the conjugation of permettre across all primary tenses, highlighting pronunciation tips and key syntactic structures.

1. Overview and Verb Family

Permettre is an irregular third-group verb. It is formed from the prefix per- and the base verb mettre (to put). Therefore, if you know how to conjugate mettre, you automatically know how to conjugate permettre, promettre (to promise), admettre (to admit), and soumettre (to submit).

  • Infinitive: permettre
  • Present Participle: permettant (allowing)
  • Past Participle: permis (allowed / permitted)
  • Auxiliary verb: avoir (except in reflexive form se permettre, which uses être)

    • 2. Indicative Mood Conjugations

    Present Tense (Présent de l'indicatif)

In the singular forms, one 't' drops off and the endings are `-s`, `-s`, `-t`. In the plural forms, the double 't' returns.

Subject Pronoun French Form English Translation
:--- :--- :---
Je / J' permets I allow / I am allowing
Tu permets You allow (informal)
Il / Elle / On permet He / She / One allows
Nous permettons We allow
Vous permettez You allow (formal/plural)
Ils / Elles permettent They allow

Pronunciation note: Permets and permet are pronounced identically (`/pɛʁ.mɛ/`). The final consonants 's' and 't' are silent.

Compound Past (Passé Composé)

Use the present tense of avoir followed by the irregular past participle permis.

Subject Pronoun French Form English Translation
:--- :--- :---
J' ai permis I allowed / have allowed
Tu as permis You allowed
Il / Elle / On a permis He / She allowed
Nous avons permis We allowed
Vous avez permis You allowed
Ils / Elles ont permis They allowed

Example: Le beau temps a permis une agréable promenade. (The nice weather made a pleasant walk possible.)

Imperfect Tense (Imparfait)

The stem `permett-` remains consistent for all persons with standard imperfect endings.

Simple Future (Futur Simple)

Subject Pronoun French Form English Translation
:--- :--- :---
Je permettais I was allowing / used to allow
Tu permettais You were allowing
Il / Elle / On permettait He was allowing
Nous permettions We were allowing
Vous permettiez You were allowing
Ils / Elles permettaient They were allowing

Drop the silent `-e` from the infinitive to create the future stem `permettr-`.

3. Subjunctive and Conditional Moods

Present Subjunctive (Subjonctif Présent)

Subject Pronoun French Form English Translation
:--- :--- :---
Je permettrai I will allow
Tu permettras You will allow
Il / Elle / On permettra He will allow
Nous permettrons We will allow
Vous permettrez You will allow
Ils / Elles permettront They will allow

Used after expressions of necessity, desire, or doubt. It utilizes the stem `permett-` throughout.

  • Que je permette
  • Que tu permettes
  • Qu'il / elle / on permette
  • Que nous permettions
  • Que vous permettiez
  • Qu'ils / elles permettent

Example: Il est important que la loi permette cette exception. (It is important that the law allows this exception.)

Present Conditional (Conditionnel Présent)

Built by adding the imperfect endings to the future stem `permettr-`.

  • Je permettrais (I would allow)
  • Tu permettrais
  • Il / elle / on permettrait
  • Nous permettrions
  • Vous permettriez
  • Ils / elles permettraient

    • Imperative Mood (Impératif)

  • Permets (Tu) — Allow
  • Permettons (Nous) — Let's allow
  • Permettez (Vous) — Allow (formal/plural)

    • Used for orders or recommendations:

    4. Key Syntax: How to Use Permettre in Sentences

    1. Permettre à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose

  • Correct: Je permets à mes étudiants d'utiliser le dictionnaire.
  • Incorrect: Je permets mes étudiants d'utiliser...

    • Unlike the English verb to allow someone to do something (which takes a direct object), French requires an indirect object:

  • Je lui permets de partir plus tôt. (I allow him/her to leave earlier.)

    • When replacing the person with an object pronoun, use indirect object pronouns (lui, leur):

    2. The Reflexive Form: Se permettre de

  • « Je me permets de vous écrire pour postuler à cette offre. » (I am taking the liberty of writing to apply for this job opening.)

    • Commonly used in formal correspondence to mean "to take the liberty of doing something":