bâtir

See also: batir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French bastir, from Old French bastir (“to build, make; to sew”), from Medieval Latin bastiō (“to build, construct; to weave, sew”), borrowed from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew, weave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.tiʁ/, /bɑ.tiʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

bâtir

1. to build; to construct
2. to build up

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 bâtir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bâtir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bâtissant /ba.ti.sɑ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bâti /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bâtis /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtis /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtit /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtissons /ba.ti.sɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sɔ̃/	bâtissez /ba.ti.se/ or /bɑ.ti.se/	bâtissent /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/
	imperfect	bâtissais /ba.ti.sɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.sɛ/	bâtissais /ba.ti.sɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.sɛ/	bâtissait /ba.ti.sɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.sɛ/	bâtissions /ba.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sjɔ̃/	bâtissiez /ba.ti.sje/ or /bɑ.ti.sje/	bâtissaient /ba.ti.sɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	bâtis /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtis /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtit /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtîmes /ba.tim/ or /bɑ.tim/	bâtîtes /ba.tit/ or /bɑ.tit/	bâtirent /ba.tiʁ/ or /bɑ.tiʁ/
	future	bâtirai /ba.ti.ʁe/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁe/	bâtiras /ba.ti.ʁa/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁa/	bâtira /ba.ti.ʁa/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁa/	bâtirons /ba.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁɔ̃/	bâtirez /ba.ti.ʁe/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁe/	bâtiront /ba.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bâtirais /ba.ti.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁɛ/	bâtirais /ba.ti.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁɛ/	bâtirait /ba.ti.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁɛ/	bâtirions /ba.ti.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	bâtiriez /ba.ti.ʁje/ or /bɑ.ti.ʁje/	bâtiraient /ba.ti.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.ti.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	bâtisse /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/	bâtisses /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/	bâtisse /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/	bâtissions /ba.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sjɔ̃/	bâtissiez /ba.ti.sje/ or /bɑ.ti.sje/	bâtissent /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/
	imperfect2	bâtisse /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/	bâtisses /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/	bâtît /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	bâtissions /ba.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sjɔ̃/	bâtissiez /ba.ti.sje/ or /bɑ.ti.sje/	bâtissent /ba.tis/ or /bɑ.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bâtis /ba.ti/ or /bɑ.ti/	—	bâtissons /ba.ti.sɔ̃/ or /bɑ.ti.sɔ̃/	bâtissez /ba.ti.se/ or /bɑ.ti.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

• bâtir des châteaux en Espagne
• bâtir des plans sur la comète
• terrain à bâtir

Related terms

• bâtiment
• bâtissable
• bâtisseur

Further reading

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