écouter

See also: êcouter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French escouter, from Old French escouter, from Latin ascultāre, variant of auscultāre. Doublet of ausculter, a borrowing from Latin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.ku.te/

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Verb

écouter

1. (intransitive) to listen
2. (transitive) to listen to

   J’écoute la radio.

   I am listening to the radio.

3. (transitive, Canada) to watch (a film or television)

Conjugation

Conjugation of écouter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	écouter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	écoutant /e.ku.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		écouté /e.ku.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	écoute /e.kut/	écoutes /e.kut/	écoute /e.kut/	écoutons /e.ku.tɔ̃/	écoutez /e.ku.te/	écoutent /e.kut/
	imperfect	écoutais /e.ku.tɛ/	écoutais /e.ku.tɛ/	écoutait /e.ku.tɛ/	écoutions /e.ku.tjɔ̃/	écoutiez /e.ku.tje/	écoutaient /e.ku.tɛ/
	past historic2	écoutai /e.ku.te/	écoutas /e.ku.ta/	écouta /e.ku.ta/	écoutâmes /e.ku.tam/	écoutâtes /e.ku.tat/	écoutèrent /e.ku.tɛʁ/
	future	écouterai /e.ku.tʁe/	écouteras /e.ku.tʁa/	écoutera /e.ku.tʁa/	écouterons /e.ku.tʁɔ̃/	écouterez /e.ku.tʁe/	écouteront /e.ku.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	écouterais /e.ku.tʁɛ/	écouterais /e.ku.tʁɛ/	écouterait /e.ku.tʁɛ/	écouterions /e.ku.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	écouteriez /e.ku.tə.ʁje/	écouteraient /e.ku.tʁɛ/
(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	écoute /e.kut/	écoutes /e.kut/	écoute /e.kut/	écoutions /e.ku.tjɔ̃/	écoutiez /e.ku.tje/	écoutent /e.kut/
	imperfect2	écoutasse /e.ku.tas/	écoutasses /e.ku.tas/	écoutât /e.ku.ta/	écoutassions /e.ku.ta.sjɔ̃/	écoutassiez /e.ku.ta.sje/	écoutassent /e.ku.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	écoute /e.kut/	—	écoutons /e.ku.tɔ̃/	écoutez /e.ku.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).

Derived terms

• écoute
• écoute-s'il-pleut
• écouteur
• n'écouter que d'une oreille
• s'écouter parler

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: koute

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• écourte, écourté