Monter is the verb to go up, to climb, to rise. Its conjugation is fully regular -er, but it sits in a special grammatical club: the maison d'être, the closed list of motion / change-of-state verbs that take être as their compound-tense auxiliary in their core intransitive use. When monter takes a direct object — bags carried up, a horse mounted, a business set up, a play staged — it switches to avoir, mirroring the behavior of its sister verbs descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, retourner.
Beyond the auxiliary, monter covers an astonishingly broad semantic field for English speakers. It means go up (the literal sense), get on / board (a train, bus, plane, horse), rise (in price, temperature, rank), carry up (transitive), assemble (furniture, a model), set up (a business, a tournament), stage (a play, a film). All of these uses sit on a single verb. This page is the full reference.
The simple tenses
Monter is conjugated identically to all regular -er verbs across the simple tenses. There are no orthographic adjustments and no stem changes anywhere in the paradigm.
Présent de l'indicatif
Standard -er endings on the mont- stem.
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | monte | /mɔ̃t/ |
| tu | montes | /mɔ̃t/ |
| il / elle / on | monte | /mɔ̃t/ |
| nous | montons | /mɔ̃.tɔ̃/ |
| vous | montez | /mɔ̃.te/ |
| ils / elles | montent | /mɔ̃t/ |
The 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 3pl forms are all pronounced identically (/mɔ̃t/) — only the pronoun and context distinguish them.
Je monte au bureau, j'arrive dans cinq minutes.
I'm heading up to the office, I'll be there in five.
Le ballon monte vraiment haut, regardez !
The balloon is going really high, look!
Les loyers montent dans le quartier depuis l'an dernier.
Rents have been going up in the neighborhood since last year.
Imparfait
Mont- stem with regular imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | montais |
| tu | montais |
| il / elle / on | montait |
| nous | montions |
| vous | montiez |
| ils / elles | montaient |
Quand on était enfants, on montait dans le grenier en cachette.
When we were kids, we used to sneak up to the attic.
La fièvre montait toujours en fin de journée.
Her fever would always rise by the end of the day.
Passé simple (literary)
Regular 1er-groupe pattern. Watch the diacritics: circumflex on nous montâmes and vous montâtes; grave accent on ils montèrent (3rd plural is always -èrent for -er verbs in the passé simple).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | montai |
| tu | montas |
| il / elle / on | monta |
| nous | montâmes |
| vous | montâtes |
| ils / elles | montèrent |
Ils montèrent au sommet en silence, épuisés mais heureux.
They climbed to the summit in silence, exhausted but happy. (literary)
Futur simple
Stem: the full infinitive monter-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | monterai |
| tu | monteras |
| il / elle / on | montera |
| nous | monterons |
| vous | monterez |
| ils / elles | monteront |
On montera à pied jusqu'au refuge, ça nous fera du bien.
We'll hike up to the shelter on foot, it'll do us good.
Les températures monteront jusqu'à trente-cinq degrés cet après-midi.
Temperatures will climb to thirty-five degrees this afternoon.
Conditionnel présent
Same monter- stem with imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | monterais |
| tu | monterais |
| il / elle / on | monterait |
| nous | monterions |
| vous | monteriez |
| ils / elles | monteraient |
À ta place, je monterais voir ce qui se passe en haut.
If I were you, I'd go up and see what's going on upstairs.
Subjonctif présent
Standard endings on mont-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (que) je | monte |
| (que) tu | montes |
| (qu')il / elle / on | monte |
| (que) nous | montions |
| (que) vous | montiez |
| (qu')ils / elles | montent |
Il faut que je monte chercher mon manteau.
I need to go up and get my coat.
J'ai peur qu'elle ne monte pas dans le bon train.
I'm worried she won't get on the right train.
Impératif
Three forms. Note that the tu imperative of -er verbs drops the -s (so monte, not montes).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (tu) | monte |
| (nous) | montons |
| (vous) | montez |
Monte vite, le repas est prêt !
Come up quickly, the meal is ready!
Montez à l'étage, je vous rejoins dans une minute.
Go upstairs, I'll join you in a minute.
Participles and gérondif
- Participe passé: monté (with être: agrees with subject — monté, montée, montés, montées; with avoir: agrees only with a preceding direct object)
- Participe présent: montant
- Gérondif: en montant
En montant l'escalier, j'ai entendu des voix au premier étage.
As I was going up the stairs, I heard voices on the first floor.
The participle has also become a noun: un montant = an amount, a sum total. Le montant total de la facture = the total amount of the bill.
The auxiliary switch: être vs avoir
This is the central thing to understand about monter. The same rule that governs descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, retourner:
- Intransitive (no direct object) → être. Je suis monté = I went up.
- Transitive (with direct object) → avoir. J'ai monté les bagages = I brought the bags up.
The reasoning: être in the maison d'être is reserved for verbs of motion or change of state where the subject itself is what moves. The moment monter takes an object — a thing being brought up, a horse being mounted, a business being set up — the focus shifts to the object, the subject becomes an active agent, and the verb behaves like any normal transitive verb. Therefore avoir.
Intransitive: être
The subject moves itself upward.
Elle est montée à l'étage pour téléphoner tranquillement.
She went upstairs to call in peace.
On est montés tout en haut de la tour, la vue était à couper le souffle.
We went all the way up the tower — the view was breathtaking.
Les prix sont montés en flèche cette année.
Prices have shot up this year.
The participle agrees with the subject: monté, montée, montés, montées. Elle est montée, ils sont montés, elles sont montées.
Transitive: avoir
When monter takes a direct object — bags, an escalier-as-object, a horse, a business, a play — it takes avoir.
J'ai monté les valises au quatrième étage à pied.
I carried the suitcases up to the fourth floor on foot.
Elle a monté l'étagère IKEA toute seule en deux heures.
She assembled the IKEA shelf by herself in two hours.
Ils ont monté une petite affaire de pâtisserie il y a cinq ans.
They set up a small pastry business five years ago.
On a monté ce spectacle en six semaines à peine.
We staged this show in barely six weeks.
With avoir, past participle agreement follows the standard rule — agree only with a preceding direct object:
Les valises que j'ai montées sont déjà dans la chambre.
The suitcases I brought up are already in the bedroom.
A subtle case: monter les escaliers
Just like with descendre, English speakers sometimes hesitate here. In French, les escaliers is a direct object of monter, and the verb is transitive — so it takes avoir:
J'ai monté les escaliers quatre à quatre.
I bounded up the stairs four at a time.
If you want to keep the verb intransitive and treat the stairs as a path rather than an object, use par:
Je suis monté par les escaliers, l'ascenseur était bondé.
I went up by the stairs, the lift was packed.
Both are correct French. The first foregrounds the stairs as the object being climbed; the second foregrounds the subject's motion with the stairs as mere route.
The major uses
1. To go up — physical ascent
The literal sense.
Je monte voir si les enfants dorment.
I'm going up to see if the kids are asleep.
Le soufflé monte bien, ne touchez pas au four !
The soufflé is rising nicely, don't touch the oven!
2. Monter dans — to get on / board (a vehicle)
The standard verb for boarding a train, bus, plane, taxi, or car. The vehicle is marked with dans.
Vite, monte dans le train, il va partir !
Quick, get on the train, it's about to leave!
On est montés dans le bus de huit heures.
We got on the eight o'clock bus.
Elle est montée dans un taxi devant la gare.
She got into a taxi outside the station.
For monter à + bicycle / horse, see the next entry — those use à rather than dans, since you mount on top of them rather than enter them.
3. Monter à cheval / monter à vélo — to ride
For things you mount astride — a horse, a bicycle, a motorbike — French uses monter à.
Elle monte à cheval depuis l'âge de six ans.
She's been riding horses since she was six.
Vous savez monter à vélo ?
Do you know how to ride a bike?
The general pattern: dans for vehicles you enter (train, car, bus), à for things you straddle (horse, bicycle, motorbike, ski lift). For elevators, dans (enter) is standard.
4. Monter une affaire / une entreprise — to set up a business
Highly idiomatic. Monter in this transitive sense means to set up, establish, build from the ground up.
Ils ont monté leur affaire à partir de rien.
They built their business from nothing.
Tu as déjà monté ton entreprise ou tu es encore salariée ?
Have you already set up your business, or are you still an employee?
The same construction extends to projects, organizations, plans:
On a monté un projet associatif pour aider les sans-abri.
We set up a non-profit project to help the homeless.
5. Monter un meuble — to assemble (furniture)
The IKEA verb. Used for assembling anything from a flat-pack: furniture, tents, bicycles, models.
J'ai mis trois heures à monter cette commode, c'est pas vrai.
It took me three hours to assemble this dresser, I can't believe it.
Tu m'aides à monter la tente avant qu'il pleuve ?
Will you help me put up the tent before it rains?
6. Monter un film / un spectacle / une pièce — to stage, to edit
In artistic contexts: monter une pièce = to stage a play; monter un film = to edit a film (postproduction).
Elle monte une pièce de Beckett pour le festival d'automne.
She's staging a Beckett play for the autumn festival.
Le film est monté, on attend juste le mixage son.
The film is edited, we're just waiting for the sound mix.
7. To rise (figurative) — prices, fever, anger, rank
Very productive metaphor: anything that increases or intensifies monte.
Le prix de l'essence n'arrête pas de monter cette année.
Gas prices won't stop going up this year.
Sa fièvre est montée à trente-neuf cinq dans la nuit.
His fever rose to 39.5 during the night.
La colère monte chez les agriculteurs.
Anger is rising among farmers.
Il a monté en grade très rapidement après la promotion.
He climbed the ranks very quickly after the promotion.
8. Monter le son / monter le chauffage — to turn up
For volume, heat, intensity — anything you can dial up.
Tu peux monter le son, s'il te plaît ? Je n'entends rien.
Can you turn up the volume, please? I can't hear anything.
Il commence à faire frais, je vais monter le chauffage.
It's getting chilly, I'll turn up the heat.
High-frequency idioms
- monter en flèche — to skyrocket
- monter en grade — to climb the ranks
- monter sur ses grands chevaux — to get on one's high horse
- monter la tête à quelqu'un — to put ideas in someone's head, wind someone up
- monter au créneau — to step up, take a public stand
- faire monter la mayonnaise — to whip something up, build something up
- ça lui est monté à la tête — it's gone to his head
- monter le coup à quelqu'un — to play a trick on someone
Ses ventes ont monté en flèche après l'interview.
Her sales skyrocketed after the interview.
Ne monte pas sur tes grands chevaux, je plaisantais.
Don't get on your high horse, I was joking.
Depuis qu'il a réussi son concours, ça lui est complètement monté à la tête.
Since he passed his exam, it's completely gone to his head.
Comparison with English
Three friction points:
The être / avoir alternation has no English parallel. English uses have universally for the perfect (I have gone up, I have brought up). French splits sharply: je suis monté(e) (no object) vs j'ai monté les valises (with object). Internalize the rule "object → avoir, no object → être" and the alternation becomes mechanical.
Single verb covers many English constructions. English uses to go up, to climb, to get on, to ride, to turn up, to set up, to rise, to assemble, to stage for things French unifies under monter. The verb is genuinely promiscuous in its meaning — once you internalize the core sense (something moving up or being made to rise), the figurative uses follow.
Vehicle preposition contrast. English get on the train / ride the bike doesn't distinguish them, but French does: monter dans le train (you enter it) vs monter à vélo (you straddle it). Learning which preposition goes with which transport mode is a small but useful piece of vocabulary.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using être when there is a direct object.
❌ Je suis monté les valises au troisième étage.
Wrong — with a direct object, monter takes avoir.
✅ J'ai monté les valises au troisième étage.
I carried the suitcases up to the third floor.
Mistake 2: Using avoir for the intransitive sense.
❌ J'ai monté à l'étage pour me changer.
Wrong — without a direct object, monter takes être.
✅ Je suis monté(e) à l'étage pour me changer.
I went upstairs to change.
Mistake 3: Wrong preposition with vehicle.
❌ Je monte sur le train à la gare du Nord.
Wrong — for trains, buses, planes you enter, use dans.
✅ Je monte dans le train à la gare du Nord.
I'm getting on the train at Gare du Nord.
Mistake 4: Forgetting agreement with être.
❌ Elles sont monté chercher leurs affaires.
Wrong — with être, the participle agrees with the subject (feminine plural: montées).
✅ Elles sont montées chercher leurs affaires.
They went up to get their things.
Mistake 5: Keeping the -s on the tu imperative.
❌ Montes vite !
Wrong — -er imperatives drop the -s in the tu form.
✅ Monte vite !
Come up quickly!
Key takeaways
Monter is a fully regular -er verb meaning to go up, climb, rise, board, set up, assemble, stage, turn up — a single verb covering an enormous semantic field. Conjugation is impeccably regular, with no stem changes and standard -er endings everywhere.
The defining feature is the auxiliary switch:
- Intransitive monter (subject moves up) takes être, with subject agreement: je suis monté(e), elles sont montées.
- Transitive monter (object is taken up, mounted, set up, assembled, staged, turned up) takes avoir, with the standard preceding-direct-object agreement: les valises que j'ai montées.
The same auxiliary switch governs descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, retourner — master it once and you have all six.
The most useful constructions: monter dans (board a vehicle: train, bus, plane), monter à (mount: horse, bike, motorbike), monter une affaire / une entreprise (set up a business), monter un meuble (assemble furniture), monter une pièce (stage a play), and the productive figurative use for any rising quantity: prices, fever, anger, rank.
Watch the orthography: passé simple has circumflexes on nous montâmes / vous montâtes and a grave accent on ils montèrent; the tu imperative drops the -s (monte ! not montes !).
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