Tomber is the verb to fall — but in French it does much more work than English fall. It is a fully regular -er verb (1er groupe, no orthographic adjustments anywhere) that sits inside the maison d'être, the closed list of motion and change-of-state verbs whose compound tenses are formed with être. Beyond the literal sense of falling to the ground, tomber combines with adjectives to mean become (tomber malade — get sick, tomber amoureux — fall in love), serves as the workhorse of timing idioms (ça tombe bien — that's good timing), and gives French one of its most useful constructions, laisser tomber (drop / give up).
This page covers every paradigm, the auxiliary in detail, and the constellation of senses an English speaker needs to recognize tomber in the wild.
The simple tenses
Tomber uses the unchanging stem tomb- in every simple tense. There are no spelling adjustments — unlike manger (mangeons) or commencer (commençons), tomber has nothing to memorize beyond the standard 1er-groupe template.
Présent de l'indicatif
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | tombe | /tɔ̃b/ |
| tu | tombes | /tɔ̃b/ |
| il / elle / on | tombe | /tɔ̃b/ |
| nous | tombons | /tɔ̃.bɔ̃/ |
| vous | tombez | /tɔ̃.be/ |
| ils / elles | tombent | /tɔ̃b/ |
The four singular and 3pl forms are pronounced identically (/tɔ̃b/) — this is the silent-ending pattern that makes subject pronouns mandatory in French.
Attention, ne tombe pas — il y a du verglas devant l'entrée.
Careful, don't fall — there's black ice in front of the entrance.
Les feuilles tombent déjà, l'automne est en avance cette année.
The leaves are already falling — autumn is early this year.
Imparfait
Standard imparfait endings on the tomb- stem.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | tombais |
| tu | tombais |
| il / elle / on | tombait |
| nous | tombions |
| vous | tombiez |
| ils / elles | tombaient |
Quand on était petits, on tombait tout le temps en faisant du vélo.
When we were little, we would fall all the time when riding our bikes.
Il tombait une pluie fine, presque invisible, mais qui mouillait tout.
A fine rain was falling, almost invisible, but it was soaking everything.
Passé simple (literary)
Regular 1er-groupe pattern. Note the circumflex on nous tombâmes / vous tombâtes and the grave accent on ils tombèrent — these are the trademark passé simple diacritics for -er verbs.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | tombai |
| tu | tombas |
| il / elle / on | tomba |
| nous | tombâmes |
| vous | tombâtes |
| ils / elles | tombèrent |
The passé simple is (literary) — you will encounter it in novels, fairy tales, history textbooks, and journalism with literary aspirations, but never in conversation.
Le rideau tomba, et la salle resta un instant silencieuse.
The curtain fell, and the hall remained silent for a moment.
Futur simple and conditionnel présent
Both built on the full infinitive tomber-, plus the standard endings. Watch the silent e of -er-: it is written but not pronounced (/tɔ̃.bʁɛ/, not /tɔ̃.bə.ʁɛ/).
| Person | Futur simple | Conditionnel |
|---|---|---|
| je | tomberai | tomberais |
| tu | tomberas | tomberais |
| il / elle / on | tombera | tomberait |
| nous | tomberons | tomberions |
| vous | tomberez | tomberiez |
| ils / elles | tomberont | tomberaient |
Si tu continues à courir comme ça, tu vas tomber.
If you keep running like that, you're going to fall.
Sans cette barrière, le gamin tomberait directement dans le fossé.
Without that barrier, the kid would fall straight into the ditch.
Subjonctif présent
Standard endings on the tomb- stem.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| que je | tombe |
| que tu | tombes |
| qu'il / elle / on | tombe |
| que nous | tombions |
| que vous | tombiez |
| qu'ils / elles | tombent |
J'ai peur qu'il tombe en descendant l'escalier.
I'm afraid he'll fall going down the stairs.
Impératif
The familiar three forms. As with all -er verbs, the tu form drops the final -s of the present indicative.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tu | tombe |
| nous | tombons |
| vous | tombez |
The bare imperative Tombe ! is rare in isolation — you'll almost always meet it as Ne tombe pas ! (Don't fall!) or as the fixed expression Laisse tomber ! (Drop it / forget about it).
The compound tenses — auxiliary ÊTRE
This is the central grammatical fact about tomber: it takes être as its compound-tense auxiliary, and the past participle tombé must agree in gender and number with the subject.
Past participle: tombé(e)(s)
The four written forms:
| Subject gender / number | Past participle |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | tombé |
| feminine singular | tombée |
| masculine plural | tombés |
| feminine plural | tombées |
In speech, all four are pronounced identically (/tɔ̃.be/) — agreement is purely orthographic for tomber.
Passé composé
Il est tombé en sortant du métro.
He fell as he was coming out of the metro.
Elle est tombée dans les escaliers, mais ce n'est rien de grave.
She fell on the stairs, but it's nothing serious.
Les enfants sont tombés malades l'un après l'autre cette semaine.
The kids got sick one after another this week.
Mes deux sœurs sont tombées amoureuses au même moment, c'est fou.
My two sisters fell in love at the same moment — it's wild.
Notice the agreement in every example: il est tombé (m.sg., no extra letter), elle est tombée (f.sg., add -e), les enfants sont tombés (m.pl., add -s), mes deux sœurs sont tombées (f.pl., add -es).
Plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, conditionnel passé
All formed with être in the appropriate tense + tombé(e)(s).
| Tense | Form (3sg masc) |
|---|---|
| plus-que-parfait | il était tombé |
| futur antérieur | il sera tombé |
| conditionnel passé | il serait tombé |
| passé du subjonctif | qu'il soit tombé |
Quand je suis arrivée, elle était déjà tombée et son père l'aidait à se relever.
When I arrived, she had already fallen and her father was helping her up.
Si tu n'avais pas attrapé mon bras, je serais tombée.
If you hadn't grabbed my arm, I would have fallen.
Tomber + adjective: the change-of-state construction
One of the most productive uses of tomber in French is the [tomber + adjective] frame, where it means become — but only for sudden, often negative or emotional changes. This is genuinely different from English, where fall + adjective is rare and lexicalized (fall ill, fall asleep, fall flat) but not productive.
The most common collocations:
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tomber malade | get sick / fall ill |
| tomber amoureux / amoureuse de | fall in love with |
| tomber enceinte | get pregnant (informal) |
| tomber d'accord | come to an agreement |
| tomber en panne | break down (vehicles, machines) |
| tomber dans les pommes | faint (idiomatic, informal — literally "fall in the apples") |
Je suis tombée amoureuse de Lyon dès le premier week-end.
I fell in love with Lyon from the very first weekend.
La voiture est tombée en panne sur l'autoroute, on a attendu deux heures.
The car broke down on the highway — we waited two hours.
Quand elle a vu le sang, elle est tombée dans les pommes.
When she saw the blood, she fainted.
The tomber + adjective construction always agrees: elle est tombée malade, ils sont tombés amoureux, elles sont tombées d'accord. And it always uses être — the change-of-state semantics put it squarely in the maison d'être logic.
Timing idioms: ça tombe bien / mal
The single most useful idiom built on tomber is the ça tombe bien / mal family, which expresses timing — the convenient or inconvenient coincidence of two events.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ça tombe bien | that's good timing / how convenient |
| ça tombe mal | that's bad timing |
| ça tombe à pic | that's perfect timing (literally "to the peak") |
| tomber sur quelqu'un | run into someone (by chance) |
Tu vas à la boulangerie ? Ça tombe bien, j'ai oublié d'acheter du pain.
You're going to the bakery? Perfect — I forgot to buy bread.
Ça tombe mal, je viens de partir, je ne peux pas faire demi-tour.
That's bad timing — I just left, I can't turn back.
Je suis tombé sur un vieil ami au supermarché ce matin.
I bumped into an old friend at the supermarket this morning.
The tomber sur construction (literally "fall on") is everyday French for chance encounters and unexpected discoveries: je suis tombé sur cet article par hasard (I came across this article by chance).
Laisser tomber: drop / give up
Laisser tomber is one of the highest-frequency verb idioms in spoken French. Literally "let fall," it covers two distinct senses:
- Drop something physically — Attention, tu vas laisser tomber le plat !
- Give up / forget about it — Laisse tomber, ça n'en vaut pas la peine. (informal)
In the second sense it is a complete utterance on its own — Laisse tomber ! is the French equivalent of "Forget it" / "Drop it."
J'ai laissé tomber mon téléphone dans les toilettes — quelle galère.
I dropped my phone in the toilet — what a mess.
Laisse tomber, on n'arrivera jamais à temps maintenant.
Forget it, we'll never get there in time now.
Il a laissé tomber ses études en troisième année.
He dropped out of his studies in his third year.
Note that laisser tomber takes the auxiliary of laisser (avoir), not of tomber — j'*ai laissé tomber, never je **suis laissé tombé. This is the standard rule for the *laisser + infinitive causative construction.
Other high-frequency uses
Falling in temperature, price, value: tomber is the standard verb.
La température est tombée de dix degrés en une nuit.
The temperature dropped ten degrees in one night.
Dates falling on a day: holidays, deadlines, etc.
Cette année, mon anniversaire tombe un dimanche.
This year my birthday falls on a Sunday.
Hair, leaves, snow falling: the natural-fall sense.
Il tombe une neige magnifique, viens regarder par la fenêtre.
Beautiful snow is falling — come look out the window.
The impersonal il tombe X is a common literary frame: il tombe une pluie, il tombe de la neige, il tombe des grêlons. In conversation, you'll more often hear the active form (la neige tombe, il pleut, il neige).
Common Mistakes
Here are the errors English speakers make most often with tomber. Each is a real transfer error from English habits.
❌ J'ai tombé dans la rue.
Incorrect — tomber takes être, not avoir, in compound tenses.
✅ Je suis tombé(e) dans la rue.
I fell in the street.
❌ Elle est tombé hier.
Incorrect — past participle must agree with the feminine subject.
✅ Elle est tombée hier.
She fell yesterday.
❌ Je suis tombé amoureux avec elle.
Incorrect — French uses 'de' here, never 'avec'.
✅ Je suis tombé amoureux d'elle.
I fell in love with her.
❌ J'ai tombé mon verre.
Incorrect — tomber is intransitive. To express dropping, use 'faire tomber' or 'laisser tomber.'
✅ J'ai fait tomber mon verre.
I dropped my glass (accidentally).
❌ Ça tombe bon.
Incorrect — the fixed expression uses 'bien,' not 'bon.'
✅ Ça tombe bien.
That's good timing.
The most stubborn error for English speakers is the auxiliary: English I fell maps directly to je suis tombé(e), not j'ai tombé. Drill the je suis tombé(e) form until it becomes automatic — it is one of the highest-frequency be-auxiliary forms in conversation.
Key takeaways
- Tomber is a regular -er verb with no orthographic adjustments — the stem tomb- is invariant across all simple tenses.
- It takes être in compound tenses, with subject agreement on the past participle: il est tombé, elle est tombée, ils sont tombés, elles sont tombées.
- Unlike monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, retourner, tomber has no transitive switch — it is always intransitive, always with être.
- The tomber + adjective frame means become (sudden change): tomber malade, tomber amoureux, tomber enceinte, tomber d'accord, tomber en panne.
- Ça tombe bien / mal / à pic is the everyday French way to comment on timing.
- Laisser tomber covers both the literal drop and the colloquial give up / forget it.
- For drop something, French uses faire tomber (accidentally) or lâcher / poser (deliberately) — never tomber directly with an object.
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