mâcher

See also: macher and Macher

French

Etymology

From Middle French mascher, from Old French mascher, inherited from Latin masticāre. Doublet of mastiquer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʃe/, /mɑ.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

mâcher

1. to chew
2. (informal) to begin or prepare some work

   Je t’ai mâché le travail, tu n’as plus qu’à le terminer.

   I prepared some work for you, you just need to finish it.

Conjugation

Conjugation of mâcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mâcher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	mâchant /ma.ʃɑ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mâché /ma.ʃe/ or /mɑ.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mâche /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâches /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâche /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâchons /ma.ʃɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃɔ̃/	mâchez /ma.ʃe/ or /mɑ.ʃe/	mâchent /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/
	imperfect	mâchais /ma.ʃɛ/ or /mɑ.ʃɛ/	mâchais /ma.ʃɛ/ or /mɑ.ʃɛ/	mâchait /ma.ʃɛ/ or /mɑ.ʃɛ/	mâchions /ma.ʃjɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃjɔ̃/	mâchiez /ma.ʃje/ or /mɑ.ʃje/	mâchaient /ma.ʃɛ/ or /mɑ.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	mâchai /ma.ʃe/ or /mɑ.ʃe/	mâchas /ma.ʃa/ or /mɑ.ʃa/	mâcha /ma.ʃa/ or /mɑ.ʃa/	mâchâmes /ma.ʃam/ or /mɑ.ʃam/	mâchâtes /ma.ʃat/ or /mɑ.ʃat/	mâchèrent /ma.ʃɛʁ/ or /mɑ.ʃɛʁ/
	future	mâcherai /maʃ.ʁe/ or /mɑʃ.ʁe/	mâcheras /maʃ.ʁa/ or /mɑʃ.ʁa/	mâchera /maʃ.ʁa/ or /mɑʃ.ʁa/	mâcherons /maʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /mɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/	mâcherez /maʃ.ʁe/ or /mɑʃ.ʁe/	mâcheront /maʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /mɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mâcherais /maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	mâcherais /maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	mâcherait /maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	mâcherions /ma.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	mâcheriez /ma.ʃə.ʁje/ or /mɑ.ʃə.ʁje/	mâcheraient /maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /mɑʃ.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	mâche /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâches /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâche /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	mâchions /ma.ʃjɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃjɔ̃/	mâchiez /ma.ʃje/ or /mɑ.ʃje/	mâchent /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/
	imperfect2	mâchasse /ma.ʃas/ or /mɑ.ʃas/	mâchasses /ma.ʃas/ or /mɑ.ʃas/	mâchât /ma.ʃa/ or /mɑ.ʃa/	mâchassions /ma.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	mâchassiez /ma.ʃa.sje/ or /mɑ.ʃa.sje/	mâchassent /ma.ʃas/ or /mɑ.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mâche /maʃ/ or /mɑʃ/	—	mâchons /ma.ʃɔ̃/ or /mɑ.ʃɔ̃/	mâchez /ma.ʃe/ or /mɑ.ʃe/	—
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).

Related terms

• mâché
• mâchoire
• mâchonner
• mâchouiller
• ne pas mâcher ses mots

Descendants

• → Alemannic German: mäschere (possibly)
• → Esperanto: maĉi

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• charme, charmé, marche, Marche, marché