bouillir

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French boillir (“to boil, burst”), from Latin bullīre, present active infinitive of bulliō (“to bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bōul- (“round object, bubble”), related to Latin bulla (“bubble, bud, button”), Eastern Frisian pol (“round, full, bursting”). More at poll.

Pronunciation

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Verb

bouillir

1. (intransitive) to boil (becoming boiling; reach boiling point)
2. (transitive) to boil (cause to boil)
3. (figuratively) to seethe

Conjugation

• This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The biggest difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) bous and (il) bout in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *bouillis and *bouillit (as in the past historic).

   Conjugation of bouillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		bouillir			avoir or être bouilli
gerund		en bouillant			en ayant bouilli or en étant bouilli
present participle		bouillant
past participle		bouilli
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	bous	bous	bout	bouillons	bouillez	bouillent
	imperfect	bouillais	bouillais	bouillait	bouillions	bouilliez	bouillaient
	past historic1	bouillis	bouillis	bouillit	bouillîmes	bouillîtes	bouillirent
	future	bouillirai	bouilliras	bouillira	bouillirons	bouillirez	bouilliront
	conditional	bouillirais	bouillirais	bouillirait	bouillirions	bouilliriez	bouilliraient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	bouille	bouilles	bouille	bouillions	bouilliez	bouillent
	imperfect1	bouillisse	bouillisses	bouillît	bouillissions	bouillissiez	bouillissent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir or être followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	bous	—	bouillons	bouillez	—
1literary tenses

Related terms

• bouillabaisse
• bouilloire
• bouillon

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Middle French

Verb

bouillir

1. to boil