The French verb mettre is a common but irregular verb which needs to be studied carefully. It means ‘to put’ but can also be used for dropping someone off somewhere, setting the table, taking time to do something, laying a carpet.
Mettre, meaning “to put” is another common irregular verb in French. Below is the chart outlining the unique conjugations for this irregular verb along with some example sentences.
| Subject Pronoun | Mettre | Meaning | Example | Translation |
| Je | mets | I put I am putting | Je mets ma bouteille sur la table. | I put my bottle on the table. |
| Tu | mets | You put You are putting | Tu mets les livres dans ton sac à dos. | You are putting the books in your backpack. |
| Il/Elle/On | met | He/She/One puts He/She/One is putting | Elle met de l’argent dans un portefeuille. | She puts some money in a wallet. |
| Nous | mettons | We put We are putting | Nous mettons le couvert avant le dîner. | We set the table before dinner. |
| Vous | mettez | You put You are putting | Vous mettez vos chaussures pour le match. | You put on your shoes for the game. |
| Ils/Elles | mettent | They put They are putting | Dans les journaux, ils mettent des articles. | In the newspapers, they put some articles. |
Notes:
- In the negative form, ne and pas must sandwich the conjugated verb in the sentence.
On ne met pas de manteau quand il fait très chaud.
One doesn’t put on a coat when it’s really hot.
- Mettre is also used in a lot of different expressions. These expressions are usually idiomatic, which means that the whole meaning of the expression is different from what each word means individually and strung together. You will learn idiomatic expressions in a future module.