Rester is the verb to stay, to remain. It is one of the most frequent verbs in French — and one of the cleanest grammatically, because it never takes a direct object and never switches auxiliary. It always takes être. Always.
But two features make it more interesting than the simple gloss "to stay" suggests. First, rester doubles as a copular verb: rester silencieux (remain silent), rester calme (stay calm), rester ouvert (remain open) — like English to remain, it links a subject to a predicate adjective, with full agreement on that adjective. Second, rester powers a piacere-type impersonal construction: il me reste cinq euros (I have five euros left), where the leftover thing is the grammatical subject and the person is an indirect object. This is the construction English speakers consistently struggle with, and getting it right is one of the cleanest signs of intermediate-level French.
This page is the full reference: every paradigm, the copular use, the impersonal il me reste construction, and the everyday phrases (rester chez soi, rester en contact, rester à faire).
The simple tenses
Rester is a perfectly regular 1er-groupe (-er) verb. No stem changes, no orthographic adjustments anywhere in the paradigm.
Présent de l'indicatif
Standard -er endings on the rest- stem.
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | reste | /ʁɛst/ |
| tu | restes | /ʁɛst/ |
| il / elle / on | reste | /ʁɛst/ |
| nous | restons | /ʁɛs.tɔ̃/ |
| vous | restez | /ʁɛs.te/ |
| ils / elles | restent | /ʁɛst/ |
The 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 3pl forms are all pronounced identically (/ʁɛst/). Only the pronoun and context distinguish them — typical -er pattern.
Je reste à la maison ce week-end, j'ai trop de choses à faire.
I'm staying home this weekend, I have too much to do.
Vous restez combien de temps à Paris ?
How long are you staying in Paris?
Les enfants restent chez leur grand-mère pendant les vacances.
The kids are staying at their grandmother's during the holidays.
Imparfait
Built on the rest- stem with regular imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | restais |
| tu | restais |
| il / elle / on | restait |
| nous | restions |
| vous | restiez |
| ils / elles | restaient |
Quand j'étais petit, je restais des heures à lire dans ma chambre.
When I was little, I'd stay for hours reading in my room.
Il restait toujours plus tard que les autres au bureau.
He always used to stay later than the others at the office.
Passé simple (literary)
Regular 1er-groupe pattern. Watch the diacritics: circumflex on nous restâmes and vous restâtes; grave accent on ils restèrent.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | restai |
| tu | restas |
| il / elle / on | resta |
| nous | restâmes |
| vous | restâtes |
| ils / elles | restèrent |
Elle resta longtemps immobile devant la fenêtre.
She stood motionless for a long while in front of the window. (literary)
Futur simple
Stem: the full infinitive rester-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | resterai |
| tu | resteras |
| il / elle / on | restera |
| nous | resterons |
| vous | resterez |
| ils / elles | resteront |
On restera deux ou trois jours, ça dépend du temps.
We'll stay two or three days, depending on the weather.
Le magasin restera fermé jusqu'à lundi.
The shop will stay closed until Monday.
Conditionnel présent
Same rester- stem with imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | resterais |
| tu | resterais |
| il / elle / on | resterait |
| nous | resterions |
| vous | resteriez |
| ils / elles | resteraient |
Je resterais bien encore un peu, mais il faut que je rentre.
I'd happily stay a bit longer, but I really need to head home.
Subjonctif présent
Standard endings on rest-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (que) je | reste |
| (que) tu | restes |
| (qu')il / elle / on | reste |
| (que) nous | restions |
| (que) vous | restiez |
| (qu')ils / elles | restent |
Il vaut mieux que tu restes à la maison aujourd'hui, tu as l'air fatiguée.
It's best you stay home today, you look tired.
Je voudrais que ça reste entre nous.
I'd like this to stay between us.
Impératif
Three forms. The tu imperative of -er verbs drops the -s (reste, not restes).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (tu) | reste |
| (nous) | restons |
| (vous) | restez |
Reste ici, je reviens tout de suite.
Stay here, I'll be right back.
Restons calmes, on va y arriver.
Let's stay calm, we'll get through this.
Restez en ligne, un agent va vous répondre.
Stay on the line, an agent will be with you shortly.
Participles and gérondif
- Participe passé: resté (always with être: agrees with subject — resté, restée, restés, restées)
- Participe présent: restant
- Gérondif: en restant
En restant à l'écoute, on apprend beaucoup.
By staying open and listening, you learn a lot.
The participe présent is also a noun: le restant = the rest, the remainder. Le restant des courses = the rest of the shopping.
The compound tenses
Rester always takes être as its auxiliary. Unlike monter, descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, retourner, rester has no transitive use — it cannot take a direct object — so there is no auxiliary switch to worry about. Just memorize: rester = être.
The past participle resté agrees with the subject in gender and number.
Passé composé
être (présent) + resté(e)(s)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | suis resté / restée |
| tu | es resté / restée |
| il / elle / on | est resté / restée |
| nous | sommes restés / restées |
| vous | êtes resté(s) / restée(s) |
| ils / elles | sont restés / restées |
Je suis restée à la maison toute la journée à cause de la pluie.
I stayed home all day because of the rain.
Ils sont restés une semaine de plus que prévu.
They stayed a week longer than planned.
On est restés en contact pendant des années.
We stayed in touch for years.
Plus-que-parfait
être (imparfait) + resté(e)(s)
Quand je suis arrivée, ils étaient restés debout pour m'attendre.
When I arrived, they had stayed up to wait for me.
Futur antérieur
être (futur) + resté(e)(s)
Quand le tout sera mélangé, il sera resté un peu de farine au fond du bol.
Once everything is mixed, there'll be a little flour left at the bottom of the bowl.
Conditionnel passé
être (conditionnel) + resté(e)(s)
Sans cette panne, on serait restés une heure de plus.
Without that breakdown, we would have stayed an hour longer.
Subjonctif passé
être (subjonctif) + resté(e)(s)
C'est dommage que vous soyez restés si peu de temps.
It's a shame you stayed such a short time.
The major uses
1. Rester quelque part — to stay somewhere
The default sense. Rester + a place expression (chez soi, à la maison, au bureau, en ville, en France...).
Reste chez moi ce soir, c'est plus simple.
Stay at my place tonight, it's easier.
On est restés à Lyon pendant trois jours.
We stayed in Lyon for three days.
Je reste au lit, j'ai mal à la tête.
I'm staying in bed, I have a headache.
2. Rester + adjective — to remain (copular use)
This is rester as a copular verb: it links the subject to a predicate adjective, which agrees in gender and number. The closest English equivalent is to remain. Common combinations: rester silencieux, rester calme, rester ouvert, rester fermé, rester debout, rester assis, rester célibataire, rester fidèle, rester poli.
Elle est restée silencieuse pendant toute la réunion.
She remained silent throughout the meeting.
Le magasin reste ouvert jusqu'à vingt-deux heures.
The shop stays open until ten p.m.
Restons polis, même quand on n'est pas d'accord.
Let's stay polite, even when we disagree.
Ils sont restés très proches malgré la distance.
They've remained very close despite the distance.
The agreement is on the adjective, not the verb: elle est restée silencieuse (feminine adjective), ils sont restés proches (masculine plural adjective). The participle resté always agrees with the subject (since the auxiliary is être); the predicate adjective also agrees with the subject.
3. Il me reste — the impersonal "leftover" construction
This is the construction that catches every English speaker off-guard. The basic form is:
Il (impersonal subject) + me / te / lui / nous / vous / leur (indirect object) + reste (verb, always 3sg with this il) + quantity (the leftover thing)
Word order: il me reste cinq euros = "there remain to me five euros" = "I have five euros left."
The leftover thing is the grammatical subject of reste (it's what is doing the remaining). The person who has it left is an indirect object marked with me / te / lui. The verb agrees with the leftover thing — singular if it's singular, plural if it's plural — even though the il in front stays invariable.
Il me reste cinq euros, ça suffit ?
I have five euros left, is that enough?
Il lui restait à peine deux jours pour finir le projet.
He had barely two days left to finish the project.
Il nous reste encore beaucoup de choses à faire.
We still have lots of things left to do.
Il leur reste deux enfants à coucher.
They've still got two kids left to put to bed.
When the leftover thing is plural and you want to be careful, the verb agrees:
Il me reste trois œufs dans le frigo.
I have three eggs left in the fridge.
Il nous reste cinq minutes avant le départ.
We have five minutes left before we leave.
In informal speech, il is often dropped or merged: me reste cinq euros, faut que je passe au DAB (got five euros left, I need to hit the ATM).
A common variant uses à + infinitif — "X is left to do":
Il reste à payer la dernière facture.
The last bill is still to be paid.
Il me reste à signer ces documents et c'est fini.
I just have to sign these documents and we're done.
4. Rester en contact / rester en relation — to stay in touch
Set phrases for maintaining a relationship over distance.
Promets-moi qu'on restera en contact.
Promise me we'll stay in touch.
On est restés en relation grâce aux réseaux sociaux.
We stayed in touch thanks to social media.
5. Rester sur — to stick to / be left with (a feeling, an impression)
A subtler idiom: rester sur quelque chose expresses being left with a particular feeling, often a bad one.
Je suis restée sur ma faim.
I left wanting more / I was still hungry.
On est restés sur une mauvaise impression.
We came away with a bad impression.
Rester sur sa faim literally means "to remain on one's hunger" — to leave a meal still hungry — and figuratively means to leave a book, film, or experience feeling unsatisfied, wanting more. It is an extremely common idiom.
6. Il reste que / reste que — the fact remains that
Used as a discourse marker to introduce a counter-point or important reminder.
Il reste que rien n'est encore décidé.
The fact remains that nothing has been decided yet.
Reste que c'est une décision difficile à prendre.
Still, it's a difficult decision to make.
High-frequency idioms
- rester en plan — to be left in the lurch
- rester sur sa faim — to be left wanting more
- rester de marbre — to remain stone-faced (literally: to remain made of marble)
- rester sans voix — to be left speechless
- rester bouche bée — to be left open-mouthed (in awe / surprise)
- rester les bras croisés — to stand by doing nothing
- en rester là — to leave it at that
- où en étais-je / où en sommes-nous ? — where was I / where are we (in this) ?
Devant ce paysage, on est restés bouche bée.
Faced with that landscape, we were left open-mouthed.
Je préfère qu'on en reste là, on est tous les deux fatigués.
I'd rather we leave it at that, we're both tired.
Elle est restée de marbre quand il lui a annoncé la nouvelle.
She stayed stone-faced when he gave her the news.
Rester as copula — what it links
As a copular verb, rester can link the subject to:
| Predicate type | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| adjective | rester calme | stay calm |
| past participle (state) | rester ouvert | stay open |
| noun (function / role) | rester ami | remain friends |
| position / posture | rester debout | stay standing |
| condition | rester célibataire | remain single |
The agreement is on the predicate adjective or noun: elle est restée debout (f.sg.), ils sont restés amis (m.pl.), les magasins sont restés ouverts (m.pl.). Predicate-adjective agreement is one of the things that makes French look careful; rester is one of the most reliable triggers for it.
Comparison with English
Three friction points:
Always être, no transitive use. Unlike monter, descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, rester has no transitive form — you cannot say j'ai resté quelqu'un. The auxiliary is invariably être, and the participle agrees with the subject. This makes rester mercifully simpler than its sister verbs in the maison d'être.
The il me reste construction is genuinely foreign. English structures I have X left as a subject-verb-object: I is the subject, have left is the verb, X is the object. French inverts the relationship: the leftover thing is the subject, the person is an indirect object. Il me reste cinq euros literally is "there remain to me five euros." This construction is high-frequency and a major fluency marker — practice it until it feels natural.
Agreement on the predicate. When rester is used as a copula (rester calme, rester ouvert, rester silencieux), the predicate adjective agrees with the subject in gender and number. English doesn't mark this. Elle est restée silencieuse needs the feminine -e; ils sont restés calmes needs the masculine plural -s. Skipping the agreement is a small but visible error.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using avoir instead of être.
❌ J'ai resté à la maison hier.
Wrong — rester always takes être.
✅ Je suis resté(e) à la maison hier.
I stayed home yesterday.
Mistake 2: Forgetting agreement with être.
❌ Elle est resté silencieux.
Wrong — both the participle (restée) and the adjective (silencieuse) need feminine agreement.
✅ Elle est restée silencieuse.
She remained silent.
Mistake 3: Translating I have X left word-for-word.
❌ J'ai cinq euros restants.
Awkward — French strongly prefers the impersonal il me reste construction.
✅ Il me reste cinq euros.
I have five euros left.
Mistake 4: Using à instead of an adjective in copular use.
❌ Il reste à calme dans toutes les situations.
Wrong — *rester calme* is direct adjective + verb, no preposition.
✅ Il reste calme dans toutes les situations.
He stays calm in any situation.
Mistake 5: Keeping the -s on the tu imperative.
❌ Restes ici !
Wrong — -er imperatives drop the -s in the tu form.
✅ Reste ici !
Stay here!
Key takeaways
Rester is a fully regular -er verb meaning to stay, remain, be left. It is one of the simpler maison-d'être verbs because it has no transitive use — the auxiliary is always être, and the participle resté always agrees with the subject. J'ai resté is impossible; je suis resté(e) is the only option.
The verb has three core uses:
- Locational — rester chez soi, rester à Paris, rester au lit (stay somewhere).
- Copular — rester calme, rester silencieux, rester ouvert (remain in a state). The predicate adjective agrees with the subject.
- Impersonal — il me reste cinq euros (I have five euros left). The leftover thing is the grammatical subject; the person is an indirect object. This piacere-type construction is high-frequency and idiomatic; learn it as a fixed pattern.
The most useful idioms: rester en contact (stay in touch), rester sur sa faim (be left wanting more), en rester là (leave it at that), il reste que (the fact remains that).
Watch the small orthographic details: passé simple has circumflexes on nous restâmes / vous restâtes and a grave accent on ils restèrent; the tu imperative drops the -s (reste ! not restes !); the participle resté(e)(s) must agree with the subject in gender and number.
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