Rentrer is the verb of going home — the verb you reach for when you mean returning to your own place at the end of the day. It is also the verb for going back inside when you've been outside, and (in its transitive use) for bringing something inside the house, the garage, or out of the rain. It is fully regular -er in conjugation (1er groupe, no orthographic adjustments) and a card-carrying member of the maison d'être in its core intransitive use.
The single most important grammatical fact about rentrer: like monter, descendre, sortir, retourner, passer, it switches auxiliary depending on transitivity. Intransitive rentrer (going home, going back in) takes être. Transitive rentrer (bringing something in, putting something away) takes avoir. This page covers every paradigm, the auxiliary switch in detail, the homecoming idioms, and the precise contrast with its cousins retourner and revenir.
The simple tenses
The stem rentr- is invariant. There are no spelling changes anywhere — rentrer conjugates exactly like parler, regarder, donner.
Présent de l'indicatif
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | rentre | /ʁɑ̃tʁ/ |
| tu | rentres | /ʁɑ̃tʁ/ |
| il / elle / on | rentre | /ʁɑ̃tʁ/ |
| nous | rentrons | /ʁɑ̃.tʁɔ̃/ |
| vous | rentrez | /ʁɑ̃.tʁe/ |
| ils / elles | rentrent | /ʁɑ̃tʁ/ |
The four singular and 3pl forms are pronounced identically (/ʁɑ̃tʁ/).
Je rentre vers 19 heures, on dîne ensemble ?
I'm getting home around 7 — shall we have dinner together?
Il pleut, rentre vite avant d'être trempé.
It's raining, come back inside quickly before you're soaked.
Les enfants rentrent de l'école à 16h30 chaque jour.
The kids get home from school at 4:30 every day.
Imparfait
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | rentrais |
| tu | rentrais |
| il / elle / on | rentrait |
| nous | rentrions |
| vous | rentriez |
| ils / elles | rentraient |
Quand je rentrais du travail, mon père m'attendait toujours sur le pas de la porte.
When I would get home from work, my father was always waiting for me on the doorstep.
Passé simple (literary)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | rentrai |
| tu | rentras |
| il / elle / on | rentra |
| nous | rentrâmes |
| vous | rentrâtes |
| ils / elles | rentrèrent |
The passé simple is (literary).
Il rentra chez lui sans dire un mot, et ferma la porte à clé.
He went home without saying a word, and locked the door.
Futur simple and conditionnel présent
Built on the full infinitive rentrer-.
| Person | Futur simple | Conditionnel |
|---|---|---|
| je | rentrerai | rentrerais |
| tu | rentreras | rentrerais |
| il / elle / on | rentrera | rentrerait |
| nous | rentrerons | rentrerions |
| vous | rentrerez | rentreriez |
| ils / elles | rentreront | rentreraient |
Tu rentreras directement après le cours, d'accord ?
You'll come straight home after class, okay?
Si j'avais le choix, je rentrerais à pied.
If I had the choice, I would walk home.
Subjonctif présent
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| que je | rentre |
| que tu | rentres |
| qu'il / elle / on | rentre |
| que nous | rentrions |
| que vous | rentriez |
| qu'ils / elles | rentrent |
Il faut que je rentre avant qu'il fasse nuit.
I need to get home before it gets dark.
Impératif
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tu | rentre |
| nous | rentrons |
| vous | rentrez |
The tu form drops the final -s of the present indicative, like all -er verbs.
Rentre maintenant, il est tard.
Come home now, it's late.
The compound tenses — the auxiliary switch
This is the central grammatical fact about rentrer. The auxiliary depends on whether the verb has a direct object.
- Intransitive rentrer (no direct object) → être with subject agreement on the past participle.
- Transitive rentrer X (direct object X) → avoir with the standard past-participle agreement rule (agreement only with a preceding direct object).
This is the same auxiliary-switch pattern shared by monter, descendre, sortir, retourner, passer. The semantic logic: when rentrer describes the subject's own change of location (going inside, going home), it patterns with the maison d'être. When rentrer describes an action the subject performs on something else, it patterns with ordinary transitive verbs.
Past participle: rentré(e)(s)
| Subject gender / number | Past participle |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | rentré |
| feminine singular | rentrée |
| masculine plural | rentrés |
| feminine plural | rentrées |
All four are pronounced identically (/ʁɑ̃.tʁe/).
Intransitive: passé composé with être
When there is no direct object, agree the participle with the subject.
Je suis rentrée tard hier soir, j'étais épuisée.
I got home late last night — I was exhausted. (feminine speaker)
Mes parents sont rentrés de vacances dimanche.
My parents came back from vacation on Sunday.
Elle est rentrée chez elle en taxi parce qu'il pleuvait des cordes.
She went home by taxi because it was pouring.
Les chats sont rentrés trempés et boueux.
The cats came back inside soaked and muddy.
Transitive: passé composé with avoir
When rentrer has a direct object — when you bring something or someone in — it switches to avoir. The participle then follows the standard rule: it agrees only with a preceding direct object.
J'ai rentré la voiture dans le garage avant l'orage.
I put the car in the garage before the storm.
Tu as rentré le linge ? Il commençait à pleuvoir.
Did you bring the laundry in? It was starting to rain.
On a rentré toutes les chaises de jardin pour l'hiver.
We brought all the garden chairs in for the winter.
In each example the direct object follows the verb, so there is no agreement to mark — the past participle stays rentré (m.sg., the default form).
When the direct object precedes the verb — as a relative pronoun (que), an interrogative (quelle voiture as-tu rentrée ?), or a clitic (je l'ai rentrée) — the participle does agree.
La voiture, je l'ai rentrée juste à temps.
The car — I got it inside just in time.
Les chaises que j'ai rentrées hier sont déjà sales.
The chairs I brought in yesterday are already dirty.
Compound tenses summary
| Tense | Intransitive (3sg masc) | Transitive (3sg masc) |
|---|---|---|
| passé composé | il est rentré | il a rentré X |
| plus-que-parfait | il était rentré | il avait rentré X |
| futur antérieur | il sera rentré | il aura rentré X |
| conditionnel passé | il serait rentré | il aurait rentré X |
| passé du subjonctif | qu'il soit rentré | qu'il ait rentré X |
Rentrer chez soi and the homecoming idioms
The most idiomatic use of rentrer is going to one's own home. The standard frame is rentrer chez X, where chez + person/possessive marks the destination as someone's home.
| Subject | Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| je | rentrer chez moi | go home (to my place) |
| tu | rentrer chez toi | go home (to your place) |
| il / elle / on | rentrer chez soi / lui / elle | go home (to his/her/one's place) |
| nous | rentrer chez nous | go home (to our place) |
| vous | rentrer chez vous | go home (to your place) |
| ils / elles | rentrer chez eux / elles | go home (to their place) |
Il est tard, je vais rentrer chez moi.
It's late, I'm going to head home.
Vous pouvez rentrer chez vous, la réunion est terminée.
You can go home, the meeting is over.
The reflexive form chez soi is used after the impersonal on and in generic statements:
Après une longue journée, on aime tous rentrer chez soi.
After a long day, we all like to go home.
Other set phrases
- rentrer au bercail — return to the fold (often after a long absence; literary or humorous).
- rentrer dans ses frais — recoup one's costs / break even.
- rentrer dans le rang — fall back into line / conform.
- rentrer dans le lard de quelqu'un — lay into someone (very informal).
- la rentrée — the noun derived from rentrer: it specifically means the start of the new school year / season (early September in France). La rentrée parlementaire, la rentrée littéraire, la rentrée scolaire.
Après deux ans à l'étranger, il est rentré au bercail.
After two years abroad, he came back to the fold.
Avec ce contrat, on devrait rentrer dans nos frais d'ici mars.
With this contract, we should break even by March.
Tous mes enfants reprennent l'école à la rentrée.
All my kids go back to school at the rentrée.
Rentrer vs retourner vs revenir: the homecoming triangle
This is one of the genuinely tricky distinctions in French — three verbs that all map to English return / go back / come back, but each occupies a different semantic space.
| Verb | Core meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rentrer | return HOME (or go back inside) | Je rentre à 19h. |
| retourner | return TO A PLACE that isn't your home | On retourne en Italie cet été. |
| revenir | come BACK to where the speaker is | Reviens vite, je t'attends. |
The clearest test:
- Je rentre à Paris — Paris is my home.
- Je retourne à Paris — I've been to Paris before, I'm going again, but it's not my home.
- Reviens à Paris — Come back to Paris (the speaker is in Paris).
Je rentre à Lyon ce soir, je serai chez moi pour minuit.
I'm going home to Lyon tonight, I'll be home by midnight.
On retourne à Lyon en juillet, on adore cette ville.
We're going back to Lyon in July, we love that city.
Reviens à Lyon, on te manque !
Come back to Lyon, we miss you!
For a deeper treatment of this triangle, see the arriver-vs-rentrer-vs-retourner page.
Other high-frequency uses
Going back to school / work after a break: rentrer à l'école, rentrer au bureau — but only when you mean the act of physically going back inside or going home.
Les enfants rentrent à l'école demain, fini les vacances.
The kids go back to school tomorrow — vacation's over.
Fitting / going in (intransitive): rentrer dans X can mean fit into X.
Cette robe ne me rentre plus, j'ai trop mangé pendant les fêtes.
This dress doesn't fit me anymore — I ate too much over the holidays.
Tout ne va pas rentrer dans une seule valise.
Everything's not going to fit in a single suitcase.
Crashing into / running into (informal): rentrer dans X can also mean crash into X.
Il a glissé sur la neige et il est rentré dans un poteau.
He slipped on the snow and crashed into a post.
In this last sense, the auxiliary stays être (the subject moves into the post) — but you may hear avoir in casual speech. The textbook recommendation is être.
Common Mistakes
❌ Je suis rentré la voiture dans le garage.
Incorrect — with a direct object (la voiture), the auxiliary switches to avoir.
✅ J'ai rentré la voiture dans le garage.
I put the car in the garage.
❌ J'ai rentré tard hier soir.
Incorrect — without a direct object, rentrer takes être.
✅ Je suis rentré(e) tard hier soir.
I got home late last night.
❌ Je rentre à mon maison.
Incorrect — French uses 'chez moi' for one's own home, not 'à mon maison.'
✅ Je rentre chez moi.
I'm going home.
❌ Je rentre à Paris en septembre.
Awkward unless Paris is your home — otherwise use 'aller à' or 'retourner à.'
✅ Je retourne à Paris en septembre.
I'm going back to Paris in September. (if Paris isn't your home)
❌ Mes parents sont rentré.
Incorrect — past participle must agree with the plural subject.
✅ Mes parents sont rentrés.
My parents came home.
The auxiliary switch (être intransitive vs avoir transitive) is the single most error-prone feature of rentrer. The cleanest mental rule is the one stated above: Did the subject go in, or did the subject put something else in?
Key takeaways
- Rentrer is a regular -er verb with no orthographic adjustments; the stem rentr- is invariant.
- It belongs to the maison d'être: intransitive rentrer takes être with subject agreement on the past participle.
- It has a transitive switch: with a direct object (j'ai rentré la voiture), it takes avoir with the standard preceding-DO agreement rule.
- Rentrer specifically means return HOME or go back inside — distinguish from retourner (return to a place that isn't home) and revenir (come back to where the speaker is).
- Chez moi / chez toi / chez soi is the standard frame for one's own home.
- La rentrée (the noun) means the start of the new school year / season — a fixed date in early September in France.
- High-frequency idioms: rentrer chez soi, rentrer au bercail, rentrer dans ses frais, rentrer dans le rang.
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- Retourner: Full Verb ReferenceA2 — Retourner is the verb of going back to a place — but specifically a place that isn't your home and isn't where the speaker is. With a direct object it switches to avoir and means 'turn over, flip' (il a retourné la crêpe). The reflexive se retourner means 'turn around.' This page covers every paradigm, the auxiliary switch, and the precise contrast with rentrer and revenir.
- Revenir: Full Verb ReferenceA2 — Revenir means to come back — specifically, to return to where the speaker or listener is. It is the irregular -venir family verb, conjugated like venir, and a member of the maison d'être. Beyond the literal sense, it covers reconsidering (revenir sur sa décision), regaining consciousness (revenir à soi), and the everyday 'it's coming back to me' (ça me revient). This page covers every paradigm and every major use.
- Entrer: Full Verb ReferenceA1 — Entrer is the verb to enter, to come in, to go in — and it's a canonical maison-d'être verb. As a regular -er verb its conjugation is fully predictable, but the auxiliary switch (être intransitive, avoir with a direct object as in entrer des données) and the obligatory preposition dans set it apart from English to enter. This page covers every paradigm, every use, and the contrast with rentrer.
- DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP: the maison d'être mnemonicA1 — The classic memory aid for the seventeen French verbs that take être as their compound-tense auxiliary, organized as a fictional family with motion and state-change at its core.
- The transitive switch: when maison-d'être verbs take avoirB1 — A small set of French verbs — monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, retourner — flip from être to avoir whenever they take a direct object. Mastering this switch is what separates intermediate from advanced learners.
- Arriver vs Rentrer vs Retourner: Coming Back and ArrivingA2 — Three motion verbs that English mostly collapses into 'come back' and 'arrive.' Arriver = arrive, reach a destination. Rentrer = return home (or back inside). Retourner = go back somewhere that isn't home. The split between rentrer and retourner is one of the cleanest cases of French being more precise than English — and the auxiliary trap with rentrer/retourner catches every learner. This page drills the contrast and the irreplaceable idiom 'arriver à + infinitive' (= manage to).