flairer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French flairier, from Vulgar Latin, Late Latin flāgrāre, by dissimilation from Latin frāgrāre, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₂gro-, from *bʰreh₂g- (“to smell”) + *-ro-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛ.ʁe/, /fle.ʁe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

flairer

1. (transitive) to smell, sniff (at)
2. (transitive, hunting) to scent
3. (transitive) to sense

Conjugation

Conjugation of flairer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	flairer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	flairant /flɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /fle.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		flairé /flɛ.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	flaire /flɛʁ/	flaires /flɛʁ/	flaire /flɛʁ/	flairons /flɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁɔ̃/	flairez /flɛ.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁe/	flairent /flɛʁ/
	imperfect	flairais /flɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁɛ/	flairais /flɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁɛ/	flairait /flɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁɛ/	flairions /flɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁjɔ̃/	flairiez /flɛ.ʁje/ or /fle.ʁje/	flairaient /flɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	flairai /flɛ.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁe/	flairas /flɛ.ʁa/ or /fle.ʁa/	flaira /flɛ.ʁa/ or /fle.ʁa/	flairâmes /flɛ.ʁam/ or /fle.ʁam/	flairâtes /flɛ.ʁat/ or /fle.ʁat/	flairèrent /flɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /fle.ʁɛʁ/
	future	flairerai /flɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁe/	flaireras /flɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁa/	flairera /flɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁa/	flairerons /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	flairerez /flɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁe/	flaireront /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	flairerais /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	flairerais /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	flairerait /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	flairerions /flɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	flaireriez /flɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /fle.ʁə.ʁje/	flaireraient /flɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /fle.ʁə.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	flaire /flɛʁ/	flaires /flɛʁ/	flaire /flɛʁ/	flairions /flɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁjɔ̃/	flairiez /flɛ.ʁje/ or /fle.ʁje/	flairent /flɛʁ/
	imperfect2	flairasse /flɛ.ʁas/ or /fle.ʁas/	flairasses /flɛ.ʁas/ or /fle.ʁas/	flairât /flɛ.ʁa/ or /fle.ʁa/	flairassions /flɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	flairassiez /flɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /fle.ʁa.sje/	flairassent /flɛ.ʁas/ or /fle.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	flaire /flɛʁ/	—	flairons /flɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /fle.ʁɔ̃/	flairez /flɛ.ʁe/ or /fle.ʁe/	—
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

• flair

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• riflera