percer

French

Etymology

From Old French percier, from Vulgar Latin *pertusiāre, from Latin pertusus (“perforated”). Compare Italian pertugiare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.se/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

percer

1. to pierce
2. (figuratively) to unravel, see through
   • 2017 December 22, François Forestier, “Ne ratez pas : "Tootsie"”, in L'Obs‎^[1]:

     Un comédien new-yorkais finit par percer en se travestissant en femme.

     A New York comedian ends up unraveling by dressing up as a woman.

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of percer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	percer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	perçant /pɛʁ.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		percé /pɛʁ.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	perce /pɛʁs/	perces /pɛʁs/	perce /pɛʁs/	perçons /pɛʁ.sɔ̃/	percez /pɛʁ.se/	percent /pɛʁs/
	imperfect	perçais /pɛʁ.sɛ/	perçais /pɛʁ.sɛ/	perçait /pɛʁ.sɛ/	percions /pɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	perciez /pɛʁ.sje/	perçaient /pɛʁ.sɛ/
	past historic2	perçai /pɛʁ.se/	perças /pɛʁ.sa/	perça /pɛʁ.sa/	perçâmes /pɛʁ.sam/	perçâtes /pɛʁ.sat/	percèrent /pɛʁ.sɛʁ/
	future	percerai /pɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	perceras /pɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	percera /pɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	percerons /pɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/	percerez /pɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	perceront /pɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	percerais /pɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	percerais /pɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	percerait /pɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	percerions /pɛʁ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	perceriez /pɛʁ.sə.ʁje/	perceraient /pɛʁ.sə.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	perce /pɛʁs/	perces /pɛʁs/	perce /pɛʁs/	percions /pɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	perciez /pɛʁ.sje/	percent /pɛʁs/
	imperfect2	perçasse /pɛʁ.sas/	perçasses /pɛʁ.sas/	perçât /pɛʁ.sa/	perçassions /pɛʁ.sa.sjɔ̃/	perçassiez /pɛʁ.sa.sje/	perçassent /pɛʁ.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	perce /pɛʁs/	—	perçons /pɛʁ.sɔ̃/	percez /pɛʁ.se/	—
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

• chaise percée
• panier percé
• percer à jour
• percer l’abcès

Further reading

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