cligner

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French clignier, clingnier, itself probably from a Vulgar Latin *clūdiniare < *clūdināre, a derivative of clūdō, clūdere, variant of claudō (“close, shut”) (cf. French clore); it may have been phonetically influenced (transition of -ui- to -i-) in early French by descendants of clināre (cf. Old French cliner), or more likely guigner.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kli.ɲe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

cligner

1. to squint

Conjugation

Conjugation of cligner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cligner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	clignant /kli.ɲɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cligné /kli.ɲe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cligne /kliɲ/	clignes /kliɲ/	cligne /kliɲ/	clignons /kli.ɲɔ̃/	clignez /kli.ɲe/	clignent /kliɲ/
	imperfect	clignais /kli.ɲɛ/	clignais /kli.ɲɛ/	clignait /kli.ɲɛ/	clignions /kli.ɲjɔ̃/	cligniez /kli.ɲje/	clignaient /kli.ɲɛ/
	past historic2	clignai /kli.ɲe/	clignas /kli.ɲa/	cligna /kli.ɲa/	clignâmes /kli.ɲam/	clignâtes /kli.ɲat/	clignèrent /kli.ɲɛʁ/
	future	clignerai /kli.ɲə.ʁe/	cligneras /kli.ɲə.ʁa/	clignera /kli.ɲə.ʁa/	clignerons /kli.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/	clignerez /kli.ɲə.ʁe/	cligneront /kli.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	clignerais /kli.ɲə.ʁɛ/	clignerais /kli.ɲə.ʁɛ/	clignerait /kli.ɲə.ʁɛ/	clignerions /kli.ɲə.ʁjɔ̃/	cligneriez /kli.ɲə.ʁje/	cligneraient /kli.ɲə.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	cligne /kliɲ/	clignes /kliɲ/	cligne /kliɲ/	clignions /kli.ɲjɔ̃/	cligniez /kli.ɲje/	clignent /kliɲ/
	imperfect2	clignasse /kli.ɲas/	clignasses /kli.ɲas/	clignât /kli.ɲa/	clignassions /kli.ɲa.sjɔ̃/	clignassiez /kli.ɲa.sje/	clignassent /kli.ɲas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cligne /kliɲ/	—	clignons /kli.ɲɔ̃/	clignez /kli.ɲe/	—
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

• cligner des yeux
• clignoter

Related terms

• clin

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• cingler