éclairer

French

Etymology

From Old French esclairer, from Vulgar Latin *exclāriō, *exclāriāre, from Latin exclārō, exclārāre, from ex- + clārō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.klɛ.ʁe/ ~ /e.kle.ʁe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

éclairer

1. to light up; to brighten

   Le soleil éclaire la terre.

   The sun lights up the Earth.

2. (figuratively) to shed light on; to enlighten
3. to scout

Conjugation

Conjugation of éclairer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	éclairer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	éclairant /e.klɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		éclairé /e.klɛ.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	éclaire /e.klɛʁ/	éclaires /e.klɛʁ/	éclaire /e.klɛʁ/	éclairons /e.klɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁɔ̃/	éclairez /e.klɛ.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁe/	éclairent /e.klɛʁ/
	imperfect	éclairais /e.klɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁɛ/	éclairais /e.klɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁɛ/	éclairait /e.klɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁɛ/	éclairions /e.klɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁjɔ̃/	éclairiez /e.klɛ.ʁje/ or /e.kle.ʁje/	éclairaient /e.klɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	éclairai /e.klɛ.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁe/	éclairas /e.klɛ.ʁa/ or /e.kle.ʁa/	éclaira /e.klɛ.ʁa/ or /e.kle.ʁa/	éclairâmes /e.klɛ.ʁam/ or /e.kle.ʁam/	éclairâtes /e.klɛ.ʁat/ or /e.kle.ʁat/	éclairèrent /e.klɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /e.kle.ʁɛʁ/
	future	éclairerai /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁe/	éclaireras /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁa/	éclairera /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁa/	éclairerons /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	éclairerez /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁe/	éclaireront /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	éclairerais /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	éclairerais /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	éclairerait /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁɛ/	éclairerions /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	éclaireriez /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /e.kle.ʁə.ʁje/	éclaireraient /e.klɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /e.kle.ʁə.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	éclaire /e.klɛʁ/	éclaires /e.klɛʁ/	éclaire /e.klɛʁ/	éclairions /e.klɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁjɔ̃/	éclairiez /e.klɛ.ʁje/ or /e.kle.ʁje/	éclairent /e.klɛʁ/
	imperfect2	éclairasse /e.klɛ.ʁas/ or /e.kle.ʁas/	éclairasses /e.klɛ.ʁas/ or /e.kle.ʁas/	éclairât /e.klɛ.ʁa/ or /e.kle.ʁa/	éclairassions /e.klɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	éclairassiez /e.klɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /e.kle.ʁa.sje/	éclairassent /e.klɛ.ʁas/ or /e.kle.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	éclaire /e.klɛʁ/	—	éclairons /e.klɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.kle.ʁɔ̃/	éclairez /e.klɛ.ʁe/ or /e.kle.ʁe/	—
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

• éclairage
• éclairant
• éclairement

Further reading

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