être
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
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[edit] French
[edit] Etymology
From Latin esse, be; irregular also in Latin; infinitive, present participle, past participle and imperfect from Latin stare.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Verb
être
- to be
- Vous devez être plus clair. - You must be clearer
- (auxiliary) Used to form the perfect and pluperfect tense of certain verbs (including all reflexive verbs)
- Après être allé au yoga, je suis rentré chez moi. - After having gone to yoga, I came back home
- (auxiliary) to be (Used to form the passive voice)
- Il peut être battu ce soir. - He could be beaten this evening.
[edit] Conjugation
Conjugation of être (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| simple | compound | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | être | avoir été | |||||
| gerund | en étant | Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| present participle | étant | ||||||
| past participle | été | ||||||
| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il | nous | vous | ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | suis | es | est | sommes | êtes | sont |
| imperfect | étais | étais | était | étions | étiez | étaient | |
| past historic | fus | fus | fut | fûmes | fûtes | furent | |
| future | serai | seras | sera | serons | serez | seront | |
| conditional | serais | serais | serait | serions | seriez | seraient | |
| compound tenses |
present perfect | Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| past anterior | Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il | que nous | que vous | qu’ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | sois | sois | soit | soyons | soyez | soient |
| imperfect | fusse | fusses | fût | fussions | fussiez | fussent | |
| compound tenses |
past | Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | tu | – | nous | vous | – | |
| — | sois | — | soyons | soyez | — | ||
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] See also
[edit] Noun
être m. (plural êtres)
