cracher

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French cracher, from Old French crachier (“to eject from the mouth”), from Vulgar Latin *craccare, of imitative origin, possibly via Frankish *hrākijan or *hrakkjan; compare Old High German hrahhan, hrahhjan (“to spew, spit”), Proto-Germanic *hrēkijaną (“to spit, retch, vomit”) and *krakōną (“to make a cracking sound”). See also Old English hrǣċan (“to retch, cough up, spit”), Old Norse hrǽkja (“to hawk, spit”), Old High German rachisōn (“to clear one's throat, spit”), Old High German hrahho (“throat, gorge”), Lithuanian kregeti (“dry heave, grunt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁa.ʃe/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophone: crasher

Verb

cracher

1. to spit

Conjugation

Conjugation of cracher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cracher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	crachant /kʁa.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		craché /kʁa.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	crache /kʁaʃ/	craches /kʁaʃ/	crache /kʁaʃ/	crachons /kʁa.ʃɔ̃/	crachez /kʁa.ʃe/	crachent /kʁaʃ/
	imperfect	crachais /kʁa.ʃɛ/	crachais /kʁa.ʃɛ/	crachait /kʁa.ʃɛ/	crachions /kʁa.ʃjɔ̃/	crachiez /kʁa.ʃje/	crachaient /kʁa.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	crachai /kʁa.ʃe/	crachas /kʁa.ʃa/	cracha /kʁa.ʃa/	crachâmes /kʁa.ʃam/	crachâtes /kʁa.ʃat/	crachèrent /kʁa.ʃɛʁ/
	future	cracherai /kʁaʃ.ʁe/	cracheras /kʁaʃ.ʁa/	crachera /kʁaʃ.ʁa/	cracherons /kʁaʃ.ʁɔ̃/	cracherez /kʁaʃ.ʁe/	cracheront /kʁaʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cracherais /kʁaʃ.ʁɛ/	cracherais /kʁaʃ.ʁɛ/	cracherait /kʁaʃ.ʁɛ/	cracherions /kʁa.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	cracheriez /kʁa.ʃə.ʁje/	cracheraient /kʁaʃ.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	crache /kʁaʃ/	craches /kʁaʃ/	crache /kʁaʃ/	crachions /kʁa.ʃjɔ̃/	crachiez /kʁa.ʃje/	crachent /kʁaʃ/
	imperfect2	crachasse /kʁa.ʃas/	crachasses /kʁa.ʃas/	crachât /kʁa.ʃa/	crachassions /kʁa.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	crachassiez /kʁa.ʃa.sje/	crachassent /kʁa.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	crache /kʁaʃ/	—	crachons /kʁa.ʃɔ̃/	crachez /kʁa.ʃe/	—
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

• crachat
• crachement
• cracher au bassinet
• cracher dans la soupe
• cracher le morceau
• cracheur
• crachoir
• portrait craché
• promis, juré, craché
• tout craché

 

Further reading

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