mériter

See also: meriter

French

Etymology

From mérite, or borrowed from Latin meritāre, from meritus. Replaced inherited Old French merir, from merere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.ʁi.te/

• Audio

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Verb

mériter

1. to deserve, merit

Conjugation

Conjugation of mériter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mériter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	méritant /me.ʁi.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mérité /me.ʁi.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mérite /me.ʁit/	mérites /me.ʁit/	mérite /me.ʁit/	méritons /me.ʁi.tɔ̃/	méritez /me.ʁi.te/	méritent /me.ʁit/
	imperfect	méritais /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritais /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritait /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritions /me.ʁi.tjɔ̃/	méritiez /me.ʁi.tje/	méritaient /me.ʁi.tɛ/
	past historic2	méritai /me.ʁi.te/	méritas /me.ʁi.ta/	mérita /me.ʁi.ta/	méritâmes /me.ʁi.tam/	méritâtes /me.ʁi.tat/	méritèrent /me.ʁi.tɛʁ/
	future	mériterai /me.ʁi.tʁe/	mériteras /me.ʁi.tʁa/	méritera /me.ʁi.tʁa/	mériterons /me.ʁi.tʁɔ̃/	mériterez /me.ʁi.tʁe/	mériteront /me.ʁi.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mériterais /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterais /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterait /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterions /me.ʁi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	mériteriez /me.ʁi.tə.ʁje/	mériteraient /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/
(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	mérite /me.ʁit/	mérites /me.ʁit/	mérite /me.ʁit/	méritions /me.ʁi.tjɔ̃/	méritiez /me.ʁi.tje/	méritent /me.ʁit/
	imperfect2	méritasse /me.ʁi.tas/	méritasses /me.ʁi.tas/	méritât /me.ʁi.ta/	méritassions /me.ʁi.ta.sjɔ̃/	méritassiez /me.ʁi.ta.sje/	méritassent /me.ʁi.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mérite /me.ʁit/	—	méritons /me.ʁi.tɔ̃/	méritez /me.ʁi.te/	—
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

• tout travail mérite salaire

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• trirème