asservir

French

Etymology

From a- +‎ serf +‎ -ir. This verb is not directly related to servir, or the Latin verb asservīre.

Pronunciation

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Verb

asservir

1. to enslave

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of asservir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	asservir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	asservissant /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		asservi /a.sɛʁ.vi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	asservis /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservis /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservit /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservissons /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɔ̃/	asservissez /a.sɛʁ.vi.se/	asservissent /a.sɛʁ.vis/
	imperfect	asservissais /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɛ/	asservissais /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɛ/	asservissait /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɛ/	asservissions /a.sɛʁ.vi.sjɔ̃/	asservissiez /a.sɛʁ.vi.sje/	asservissaient /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɛ/
	past historic2	asservis /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservis /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservit /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservîmes /a.sɛʁ.vim/	asservîtes /a.sɛʁ.vit/	asservirent /a.sɛʁ.viʁ/
	future	asservirai /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁe/	asserviras /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁa/	asservira /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁa/	asservirons /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɔ̃/	asservirez /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁe/	asserviront /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	asservirais /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	asservirais /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	asservirait /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	asservirions /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁjɔ̃/	asserviriez /a.sɛʁ.vi.ʁje/	asserviraient /a.sɛʁ.vi.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	asservisse /a.sɛʁ.vis/	asservisses /a.sɛʁ.vis/	asservisse /a.sɛʁ.vis/	asservissions /a.sɛʁ.vi.sjɔ̃/	asservissiez /a.sɛʁ.vi.sje/	asservissent /a.sɛʁ.vis/
	imperfect2	asservisse /a.sɛʁ.vis/	asservisses /a.sɛʁ.vis/	asservît /a.sɛʁ.vi/	asservissions /a.sɛʁ.vi.sjɔ̃/	asservissiez /a.sɛʁ.vi.sje/	asservissent /a.sɛʁ.vis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	asservis /a.sɛʁ.vi/	—	asservissons /a.sɛʁ.vi.sɔ̃/	asservissez /a.sɛʁ.vi.se/	—
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

• asservissable
• système de traction asservie

Further reading

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