éternuer

See also: êtèrnuer

French

Etymology

From Middle French esternuer, from Old French esternuer, esternuder, from Latin sternūtāre, present active infinitive of sternūtō, frequentative of sternuō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.tɛʁ.nɥe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

éternuer

1. (intransitive) to sneeze

   Synonym: (colloquial) atchoumer

Conjugation

Conjugation of éternuer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	éternuer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	éternuant /e.tɛʁ.nɥɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		éternué /e.tɛʁ.nɥe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	éternue /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternues /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternue /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternuons /e.tɛʁ.nɥɔ̃/	éternuez /e.tɛʁ.nɥe/	éternuent /e.tɛʁ.ny/
	imperfect	éternuais /e.tɛʁ.nɥɛ/	éternuais /e.tɛʁ.nɥɛ/	éternuait /e.tɛʁ.nɥɛ/	éternuions /e.tɛʁ.ny.jɔ̃/	éternuiez /e.tɛʁ.ny.je/	éternuaient /e.tɛʁ.nɥɛ/
	past historic2	éternuai /e.tɛʁ.nɥe/	éternuas /e.tɛʁ.nɥa/	éternua /e.tɛʁ.nɥa/	éternuâmes /e.tɛʁ.nɥam/	éternuâtes /e.tɛʁ.nɥat/	éternuèrent /e.tɛʁ.nɥɛʁ/
	future	éternuerai /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁe/	éternueras /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁa/	éternuera /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁa/	éternuerons /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁɔ̃/	éternuerez /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁe/	éternueront /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	éternuerais /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁɛ/	éternuerais /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁɛ/	éternuerait /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁɛ/	éternuerions /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁjɔ̃/	éternueriez /e.tɛʁ.ny.ʁje/	éternueraient /e.tɛʁ.ny.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	éternue /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternues /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternue /e.tɛʁ.ny/	éternuions /e.tɛʁ.ny.jɔ̃/	éternuiez /e.tɛʁ.ny.je/	éternuent /e.tɛʁ.ny/
	imperfect2	éternuasse /e.tɛʁ.nɥas/	éternuasses /e.tɛʁ.nɥas/	éternuât /e.tɛʁ.nɥa/	éternuassions /e.tɛʁ.nɥa.sjɔ̃/	éternuassiez /e.tɛʁ.nɥa.sje/	éternuassent /e.tɛʁ.nɥas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	éternue /e.tɛʁ.ny/	—	éternuons /e.tɛʁ.nɥɔ̃/	éternuez /e.tɛʁ.nɥe/	—
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

• éternuement

Further reading

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