tomber
French, verb/tɔ̃.be/
tomber is a French verb meaning “to fall” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Être entraîné en bas par son poids”.
What does tomber mean in English?
verb
- 1
to fall
Un tamis placé à l'intérieur du dispositif empêchera les choses de tomber dans le tube.
- 2
to come down
Laisse la pluie tomber sur nous et recouvre le pays de cette eau qui donne la vie.
- 3
to bump into, to come across; to be received by (when making a telephone call)
J'ai téléphoné à Robert mais je suis tombé sur Marie.
- 4
to become, to get
tomber amoureux
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Être entraîné en bas par son poids. 2. Descendre rapidement. 3. Perdre son équilibre ; être renversé ou abattu. 4. Tendre vers le bas, de l’autre côté.
noun: 1. Tombée, déclin, fin.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tomber
- avoir infinitive multiword-construction
- être + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- tombant gerund participle present
- ayant gerund multiword-construction participle
- étant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- tombé participle past
- tombe first-person indicative present
- tombes indicative present second-person
- tombons first-person indicative plural
- tombez indicative plural present
- tombent indicative plural present
- tombais first-person imperfect indicative
- tombait imperfect indicative singular
- tombions first-person imperfect indicative
- tombiez imperfect indicative plural
- tombaient imperfect indicative plural
- tombai first-person historic indicative
- tombas historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tomber?
- /tɔ̃.be/
- \tɔ̃.be\
- [tɔ̃.be]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tomber
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tomber in French?
tomber appears 81 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).