échoir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French escheoir, from Vulgar Latin *excadēre (“fall out”), from Latin ex- + cadere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.ʃwaʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ

Verb

échoir

1. (intransitive) to befall, to happen by chance

   Cela lui est échu en partage.

   It fell to his lot.

2. (intransitive, law, obsolete) to become necessary (only used in the phrase le cas échéant)
3. (intransitive, of an invoice) to become payable, to be due

   Le mode de facturation est à terme échu, car le calcul est basé sur l’utilisation mensuelle.

   The invoicing is presented in arrears, since the calculation is based on the monthly usage.

Conjugation

This verb is defective and is only conjugated in the third-person.

Conjugation of échoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	échoir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	échéant /e.ʃe.ɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		échu /e.ʃy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	—	—	échoit or échet /e.ʃwa/ or /e.ʃɛ/	—	—	échoient or échettent /e.ʃwa/ or /e.ʃɛt/
	imperfect	—	—	échoyait /e.ʃwa.jɛ/	—	—	échoyaient /e.ʃwa.jɛ/
	past historic2	—	—	échut /e.ʃy/	—	—	échurent /e.ʃyʁ/
	future	—	—	échoira /e.ʃwa.ʁa/	—	—	échoiront /e.ʃwa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	—	—	échoirait /e.ʃwa.ʁɛ/	—	—	échoiraient /e.ʃwa.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	—	—	échoie /e.ʃwa/	—	—	échoient /e.ʃwa/
	imperfect2	—	—	échût /e.ʃy/	—	—	échussent /e.ʃys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	—	—	—	—	—
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

• le cas échéant

Related terms

• échéance

Further reading

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