nuire

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French nuire, from Vulgar Latin *nocĕre, from Latin nocēre (> Old French nuisir).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɥiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

nuire

1. (intransitive) to harm, to spoil [+ à (object)]

   Fumer nuit à la santé.

   Smoking is harmful to your health.

   La cigarette nuit au bébé.

   Cigarettes are harmful to a baby.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, Sceptre, page 76:

     Et si vous nuisez à ma réputation, eh bien, il faudra que je ruine la vôtre.

     And if you ruin my reputation, well, I'll have to ruin yours.

Conjugation

Conjugation of nuire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	nuire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	nuisant /nɥi.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		nui /nɥi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	nuis /nɥi/	nuis /nɥi/	nuit /nɥi/	nuisons /nɥi.zɔ̃/	nuisez /nɥi.ze/	nuisent /nɥiz/
	imperfect	nuisais /nɥi.zɛ/	nuisais /nɥi.zɛ/	nuisait /nɥi.zɛ/	nuisions /nɥi.zjɔ̃/	nuisiez /nɥi.zje/	nuisaient /nɥi.zɛ/
	past historic2	nuisis /nɥi.zi/	nuisis /nɥi.zi/	nuisit /nɥi.zi/	nuisîmes /nɥi.zim/	nuisîtes /nɥi.zit/	nuisirent /nɥi.ziʁ/
	future	nuirai /nɥi.ʁe/	nuiras /nɥi.ʁa/	nuira /nɥi.ʁa/	nuirons /nɥi.ʁɔ̃/	nuirez /nɥi.ʁe/	nuiront /nɥi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	nuirais /nɥi.ʁɛ/	nuirais /nɥi.ʁɛ/	nuirait /nɥi.ʁɛ/	nuirions /nɥi.ʁjɔ̃/	nuiriez /nɥi.ʁje/	nuiraient /nɥi.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	nuise /nɥiz/	nuises /nɥiz/	nuise /nɥiz/	nuisions /nɥi.zjɔ̃/	nuisiez /nɥi.zje/	nuisent /nɥiz/
	imperfect2	nuisisse /nɥi.zis/	nuisisses /nɥi.zis/	nuisît /nɥi.zi/	nuisissions /nɥi.zi.sjɔ̃/	nuisissiez /nɥi.zi.sje/	nuisissent /nɥi.zis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	nuis /nɥi/	—	nuisons /nɥi.zɔ̃/	nuisez /nɥi.ze/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• abondance de biens ne nuit pas
• hors d’état de nuire

Related terms

• nuisance

Further reading

• “nuire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• réuni, ruine, ruiné, urine, uriné