étinceler

French

Etymology

From étincelle +‎ -er. Found in Old French as estenceler. Alternatively but less likely from a Vulgar Latin *stincillāre, with metathesis from Latin scintillāre (thus a doublet of scintiller), or adapted to étincelle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.tɛ̃.sle/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

étinceler

1. (archaic) to spark (give off sparks)
2. to sparkle, twinkle

Conjugation

With the exception of appeler, jeter and their derived verbs, all verbs that used to double the consonants can now also be conjugated like amener.

Conjugation of étinceler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	étinceler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	étincelant /e.tɛ̃.slɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		étincelé /e.tɛ̃.sle/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	étincelle or étincèle /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelles or étincèles /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelle or étincèle /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelons /e.tɛ̃.slɔ̃/	étincelez /e.tɛ̃.sle/	étincellent or étincèlent /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/
	imperfect	étincelais /e.tɛ̃.slɛ/	étincelais /e.tɛ̃.slɛ/	étincelait /e.tɛ̃.slɛ/	étincelions /e.tɛ̃.sə.ljɔ̃/	étinceliez /e.tɛ̃.sə.lje/	étincelaient /e.tɛ̃.slɛ/
	past historic2	étincelai /e.tɛ̃.sle/	étincelas /e.tɛ̃.sla/	étincela /e.tɛ̃.sla/	étincelâmes /e.tɛ̃.slam/	étincelâtes /e.tɛ̃.slat/	étincelèrent /e.tɛ̃.slɛʁ/
	future	étincellerai or étincèlerai /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁe/	étincelleras or étincèleras /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁa/	étincellera or étincèlera /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁa/	étincellerons or étincèlerons /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁɔ̃/	étincellerez or étincèlerez /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁe/	étincelleront or étincèleront /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	étincellerais or étincèlerais /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁɛ/	étincellerais or étincèlerais /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁɛ/	étincellerait or étincèlerait /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.ʁɛ/	étincellerions or étincèlerions /e.tɛ̃.sɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.tɛ̃.se.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	étincelleriez or étincèleriez /e.tɛ̃.sɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /e.tɛ̃.se.lə.ʁje/	étincelleraient or étincèleraient /e.tɛ̃.sɛl.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	étincelle or étincèle /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelles or étincèles /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelle or étincèle /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	étincelions /e.tɛ̃.sə.ljɔ̃/	étinceliez /e.tɛ̃.sə.lje/	étincellent or étincèlent /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/
	imperfect2	étincelasse /e.tɛ̃.slas/	étincelasses /e.tɛ̃.slas/	étincelât /e.tɛ̃.sla/	étincelassions /e.tɛ̃.sla.sjɔ̃/	étincelassiez /e.tɛ̃.sla.sje/	étincelassent /e.tɛ̃.slas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	étincelle or étincèle /e.tɛ̃.sɛl/	—	étincelons /e.tɛ̃.slɔ̃/	étincelez /e.tɛ̃.sle/	—
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).

Further reading

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