montrer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French monstrer, from Old French monstrer, moustrer, mostrer (etc.), from Latin mōnstrāre. The forms montrer, monstrer were influenced by the original Latin word. Compare English muster, Italian mostrare, and Spanish mostrar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔ̃.tʁe/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

montrer

1. to show

   Montre-le-moi.

   Show it to me.

   • 2018, Zaz, Résigne-moi:

     Je rêve de plus me juger, car la vie me montre ce que je dois affronter.

     I dream of judging myself more, because life shows me what I must face.

2. (reflexive) to display, to demonstrate one's characteristics

Conjugation

Conjugation of montrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	montrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	montrant /mɔ̃.tʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		montré /mɔ̃.tʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montres /mɔ̃tʁ/	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montrons /mɔ̃.tʁɔ̃/	montrez /mɔ̃.tʁe/	montrent /mɔ̃tʁ/
	imperfect	montrais /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrais /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrait /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrions /mɔ̃.tʁi.jɔ̃/	montriez /mɔ̃.tʁi.je/	montraient /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/
	past historic2	montrai /mɔ̃.tʁe/	montras /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montra /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montrâmes /mɔ̃.tʁam/	montrâtes /mɔ̃.tʁat/	montrèrent /mɔ̃.tʁɛʁ/
	future	montrerai /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁe/	montreras /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁa/	montrera /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁa/	montrerons /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/	montrerez /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁe/	montreront /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	montrerais /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerais /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerait /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerions /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	montreriez /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁje/	montreraient /mɔ̃.tʁə.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	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montres /mɔ̃tʁ/	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montrions /mɔ̃.tʁi.jɔ̃/	montriez /mɔ̃.tʁi.je/	montrent /mɔ̃tʁ/
	imperfect2	montrasse /mɔ̃.tʁas/	montrasses /mɔ̃.tʁas/	montrât /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montrassions /mɔ̃.tʁa.sjɔ̃/	montrassiez /mɔ̃.tʁa.sje/	montrassent /mɔ̃.tʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	—	montrons /mɔ̃.tʁɔ̃/	montrez /mɔ̃.tʁe/	—
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

• montre
• montrer du doigt
• montrer le bout de son nez
• montrer le poing
• montrer les dents
• montrer l’exemple
• montrer patte blanche
• montrer son vrai visage
• se montrer sous son meilleur jour

 

Further reading

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

Norman

Verb

montrer

1. Alternative form of mouontrer (“to show”)