élire

French

Etymology

From Middle French eslire, from Old French eslire, from Vulgar Latin *exlegere, from Latin ēligere, present active infinitive of ēligō. Compare (obsolete) Spanish esleír, Italian scegliere.

Pronunciation

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Verb

élire

1. to elect
2. to take up (residence)

Conjugation

Conjugation of élire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	élire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	élisant /e.li.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		élu /e.ly/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	élis /e.li/	élis /e.li/	élit /e.li/	élisons /e.li.zɔ̃/	élisez /e.li.ze/	élisent /e.liz/
	imperfect	élisais /e.li.zɛ/	élisais /e.li.zɛ/	élisait /e.li.zɛ/	élisions /e.li.zjɔ̃/	élisiez /e.li.zje/	élisaient /e.li.zɛ/
	past historic2	élus /e.ly/	élus /e.ly/	élut /e.ly/	élûmes /e.lym/	élûtes /e.lyt/	élurent /e.lyʁ/
	future	élirai /e.li.ʁe/	éliras /e.li.ʁa/	élira /e.li.ʁa/	élirons /e.li.ʁɔ̃/	élirez /e.li.ʁe/	éliront /e.li.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	élirais /e.li.ʁɛ/	élirais /e.li.ʁɛ/	élirait /e.li.ʁɛ/	élirions /e.li.ʁjɔ̃/	éliriez /e.li.ʁje/	éliraient /e.li.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	élise /e.liz/	élises /e.liz/	élise /e.liz/	élisions /e.li.zjɔ̃/	élisiez /e.li.zje/	élisent /e.liz/
	imperfect2	élusse /e.lys/	élusses /e.lys/	élût /e.ly/	élussions /e.ly.sjɔ̃/	élussiez /e.ly.sje/	élussent /e.lys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	élis /e.li/	—	élisons /e.li.zɔ̃/	élisez /e.li.ze/	—
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

• élection

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• relie, relié