combattre

French

Etymology

From Middle French combatre, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, present active infinitive of *combattō, from Latin cum + battuō, from Gaulish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.batʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

combattre

1. to fight, to combat (against)
2. to oppose, to struggle

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like battre. That means it is conjugated like vendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs), except that instead of *combatt and *combatts, it has the forms combat and combats. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.

Conjugation of combattre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	combattre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	combattant /kɔ̃.ba.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		combattu /kɔ̃.ba.ty/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	combats /kɔ̃.ba/	combats /kɔ̃.ba/	combat /kɔ̃.ba/	combattons /kɔ̃.ba.tɔ̃/	combattez /kɔ̃.ba.te/	combattent /kɔ̃.bat/
	imperfect	combattais /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/	combattais /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/	combattait /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/	combattions /kɔ̃.ba.tjɔ̃/	combattiez /kɔ̃.ba.tje/	combattaient /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/
	past historic2	combattis /kɔ̃.ba.ti/	combattis /kɔ̃.ba.ti/	combattit /kɔ̃.ba.ti/	combattîmes /kɔ̃.ba.tim/	combattîtes /kɔ̃.ba.tit/	combattirent /kɔ̃.ba.tiʁ/
	future	combattrai /kɔ̃.ba.tʁe/	combattras /kɔ̃.ba.tʁa/	combattra /kɔ̃.ba.tʁa/	combattrons /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɔ̃/	combattrez /kɔ̃.ba.tʁe/	combattront /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	combattrais /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/	combattrais /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/	combattrait /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/	combattrions /kɔ̃.ba.tʁi.jɔ̃/	combattriez /kɔ̃.ba.tʁi.je/	combattraient /kɔ̃.ba.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	combatte /kɔ̃.bat/	combattes /kɔ̃.bat/	combatte /kɔ̃.bat/	combattions /kɔ̃.ba.tjɔ̃/	combattiez /kɔ̃.ba.tje/	combattent /kɔ̃.bat/
	imperfect2	combattisse /kɔ̃.ba.tis/	combattisses /kɔ̃.ba.tis/	combattît /kɔ̃.ba.ti/	combattissions /kɔ̃.ba.ti.sjɔ̃/	combattissiez /kɔ̃.ba.ti.sje/	combattissent /kɔ̃.ba.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	combats /kɔ̃.ba/	—	combattons /kɔ̃.ba.tɔ̃/	combattez /kɔ̃.ba.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

• combat
• combattant
• combattre le feu par le feu
• combattre le mal par le mal

Related terms

• battre

Further reading

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