allaiter

French

Etymology

From Late Latin, Vulgar Latin *allactō, *allactāre, from Latin lac. Compare Portuguese aleitar, Italian allattare and Catalan alletar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.lɛ.te/ ~ /a.le.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

allaiter

1. (transitive) to breastfeed
2. (of an animal) to suckle

Conjugation

Conjugation of allaiter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	allaiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	allaitant /a.lɛ.tɑ̃/ or /a.le.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		allaité /a.lɛ.te/ or /a.le.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	allaite /a.lɛt/	allaites /a.lɛt/	allaite /a.lɛt/	allaitons /a.lɛ.tɔ̃/ or /a.le.tɔ̃/	allaitez /a.lɛ.te/ or /a.le.te/	allaitent /a.lɛt/
	imperfect	allaitais /a.lɛ.tɛ/ or /a.le.tɛ/	allaitais /a.lɛ.tɛ/ or /a.le.tɛ/	allaitait /a.lɛ.tɛ/ or /a.le.tɛ/	allaitions /a.lɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /a.le.tjɔ̃/	allaitiez /a.lɛ.tje/ or /a.le.tje/	allaitaient /a.lɛ.tɛ/ or /a.le.tɛ/
	past historic2	allaitai /a.lɛ.te/ or /a.le.te/	allaitas /a.lɛ.ta/ or /a.le.ta/	allaita /a.lɛ.ta/ or /a.le.ta/	allaitâmes /a.lɛ.tam/ or /a.le.tam/	allaitâtes /a.lɛ.tat/ or /a.le.tat/	allaitèrent /a.lɛ.tɛʁ/ or /a.le.tɛʁ/
	future	allaiterai /a.lɛ.tʁe/ or /a.le.tʁe/	allaiteras /a.lɛ.tʁa/ or /a.le.tʁa/	allaitera /a.lɛ.tʁa/ or /a.le.tʁa/	allaiterons /a.lɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /a.le.tʁɔ̃/	allaiterez /a.lɛ.tʁe/ or /a.le.tʁe/	allaiteront /a.lɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /a.le.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	allaiterais /a.lɛ.tʁɛ/ or /a.le.tʁɛ/	allaiterais /a.lɛ.tʁɛ/ or /a.le.tʁɛ/	allaiterait /a.lɛ.tʁɛ/ or /a.le.tʁɛ/	allaiterions /a.lɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.le.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	allaiteriez /a.lɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /a.le.tə.ʁje/	allaiteraient /a.lɛ.tʁɛ/ or /a.le.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	allaite /a.lɛt/	allaites /a.lɛt/	allaite /a.lɛt/	allaitions /a.lɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /a.le.tjɔ̃/	allaitiez /a.lɛ.tje/ or /a.le.tje/	allaitent /a.lɛt/
	imperfect2	allaitasse /a.lɛ.tas/ or /a.le.tas/	allaitasses /a.lɛ.tas/ or /a.le.tas/	allaitât /a.lɛ.ta/ or /a.le.ta/	allaitassions /a.lɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /a.le.ta.sjɔ̃/	allaitassiez /a.lɛ.ta.sje/ or /a.le.ta.sje/	allaitassent /a.lɛ.tas/ or /a.le.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	allaite /a.lɛt/	—	allaitons /a.lɛ.tɔ̃/ or /a.le.tɔ̃/	allaitez /a.lɛ.te/ or /a.le.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

• allaitement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• éraillât, taillera