écourter

French

Etymology

From é- +‎ court +‎ -er, corresponding to Old French escurter. Possibly from Vulgar Latin *excurtāre, from Latin curtāre, present active infinitive of curtō. Compare Occitan escortar, Italian scortare (dialectal), Romanian scurta, Friulian scurtâ, Ladin scurter.

Verb

écourter

1. to shorten, curtail (make shorter e.g. by cutting)
2. (reflexive) to shorten (become shorter)
3. to dock, clip (cut the tail of e.g. a dog)
4. to cut short, curtail (shorten the time of something)
5. to cut short, cut

Conjugation

Conjugation of écourter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	écourter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	écourtant /e.kuʁ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		écourté /e.kuʁ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtes /e.kuʁt/	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtons /e.kuʁ.tɔ̃/	écourtez /e.kuʁ.te/	écourtent /e.kuʁt/
	imperfect	écourtais /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtais /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtait /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtions /e.kuʁ.tjɔ̃/	écourtiez /e.kuʁ.tje/	écourtaient /e.kuʁ.tɛ/
	past historic2	écourtai /e.kuʁ.te/	écourtas /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourta /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourtâmes /e.kuʁ.tam/	écourtâtes /e.kuʁ.tat/	écourtèrent /e.kuʁ.tɛʁ/
	future	écourterai /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁe/	écourteras /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁa/	écourtera /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁa/	écourterons /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/	écourterez /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁe/	écourteront /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	écourterais /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterais /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterait /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterions /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	écourteriez /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁje/	écourteraient /e.kuʁ.tə.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	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtes /e.kuʁt/	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtions /e.kuʁ.tjɔ̃/	écourtiez /e.kuʁ.tje/	écourtent /e.kuʁt/
	imperfect2	écourtasse /e.kuʁ.tas/	écourtasses /e.kuʁ.tas/	écourtât /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourtassions /e.kuʁ.ta.sjɔ̃/	écourtassiez /e.kuʁ.ta.sje/	écourtassent /e.kuʁ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	écourte /e.kuʁt/	—	écourtons /e.kuʁ.tɔ̃/	écourtez /e.kuʁ.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).

Related terms

• écourtement
• écourticher

Further reading

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