frayer

See also: Frayer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French freier, from Latin fricāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁɛ.je/, /fʁe.je/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

frayer

1. (obsolete) to rub
2. (zoology, intransitive) to spawn, to fertilize an egg
3. (transitive) to open up, clear (a path, a way, etc.)

   se frayer un chemin à travers quelque chose ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 2000, Jean-François Parot, L'énigme des Blancs-Manteaux, JC Lattès, published 2012, page 32:

     Nicolas, accoutumé à l’ordre bonhomme des marchés provinciaux, dut se frayer un chemin au milieu d’un véritable chaos.

     Nicolas, used to the good-natured order of provincial markets, had to find his way through a veritable chaos.

4. (transitive with avec) to mix with, to associate with

   frayer avec quelqu’un ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer, the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of frayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	frayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	frayant /fʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /fʁe.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		frayé /fʁɛ.je/ or /fʁe.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fraye or fraie /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	frayes or fraies /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	fraye or fraie /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	frayons /fʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /fʁe.jɔ̃/	frayez /fʁɛ.je/ or /fʁe.je/	frayent or fraient /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/
	imperfect	frayais /fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /fʁe.jɛ/	frayais /fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /fʁe.jɛ/	frayait /fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /fʁe.jɛ/	frayions /fʁɛj.jɔ̃/	frayiez /fʁɛj.je/	frayaient /fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /fʁe.jɛ/
	past historic2	frayai /fʁɛ.je/ or /fʁe.je/	frayas /fʁɛ.ja/ or /fʁe.ja/	fraya /fʁɛ.ja/ or /fʁe.ja/	frayâmes /fʁɛ.jam/ or /fʁe.jam/	frayâtes /fʁɛ.jat/ or /fʁe.jat/	frayèrent /fʁɛ.jɛʁ/ or /fʁe.jɛʁ/
	future	frayerai or fraierai /fʁɛj.ʁe/ or /fʁɛ.ʁe/ or /fʁe.ʁe/	frayeras or fraieras /fʁɛj.ʁa/ or /fʁɛ.ʁa/ or /fʁe.ʁa/	frayera or fraiera /fʁɛj.ʁa/ or /fʁɛ.ʁa/ or /fʁe.ʁa/	frayerons or fraierons /fʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /fʁe.ʁɔ̃/	frayerez or fraierez /fʁɛj.ʁe/ or /fʁɛ.ʁe/ or /fʁe.ʁe/	frayeront or fraieront /fʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /fʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	frayerais or fraierais /fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fʁe.ʁɛ/	frayerais or fraierais /fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fʁe.ʁɛ/	frayerait or fraierait /fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fʁe.ʁɛ/	frayerions or fraierions /fʁɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fʁe.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	frayeriez or fraieriez /fʁɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /fʁe.jə.ʁje/ or /fʁɛ.ʁje/ or /fʁe.ʁje/	frayeraient or fraieraient /fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /fʁe.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	fraye or fraie /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	frayes or fraies /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	fraye or fraie /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	frayions /fʁɛj.jɔ̃/	frayiez /fʁɛj.je/	frayent or fraient /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/
	imperfect2	frayasse /fʁɛ.jas/ or /fʁe.jas/	frayasses /fʁɛ.jas/ or /fʁe.jas/	frayât /fʁɛ.ja/ or /fʁe.ja/	frayassions /fʁɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /fʁe.ja.sjɔ̃/	frayassiez /fʁɛ.ja.sje/ or /fʁe.ja.sje/	frayassent /fʁɛ.jas/ or /fʁe.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fraye or fraie /fʁɛj/ or /fʁɛ/	—	frayons /fʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /fʁe.jɔ̃/	frayez /fʁɛ.je/ or /fʁe.je/	—
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

• frai

Further reading

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