mêler

See also: meler

French

Etymology

From Middle French mesler, mescler, from Old French mesler, meller, *mescler (“to mingle, mix up”), from Vulgar Latin *misc(u)lāre, present active infinitive of *misc(u)lō, from Latin misceō. Compare Italian mischiare, Occitan and Catalan mesclar, Spanish mezclar. More at mix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ.le/ ~ /me.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

mêler

1. (transitive) to mix
   • 1869, Paul Verlaine, Clair de lune [Moonlight]‎^[1]:

     Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune, / Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, / Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres / Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau, / Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

     And their song blends with the moonlight, / With the sad and beautiful moonlight, / Which sets the birds in the trees dreaming, / And makes the fountains sob with ecstasy, / The tall slim water streams among the marble statues.

2. (reflexive, followed by the preposition de) to meddle in, to interfere in, to get mixed up in
3. (card games) to shuffle

Usage notes

• Mêler may take a direct object that indicates multiple things being mixed together; or, it may take a direct object that indicates a single thing being mixed into another thing, as well as an object with a preposition, such as avec (“with”), à (“to”), dans (“in, into”), parmi (“among”), de (“of”), that indicates the thing it is being mixed into.

Conjugation

Conjugation of mêler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mêler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	mêlant /mɛ.lɑ̃/ or /me.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mêlé /mɛ.le/ or /me.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mêle /mɛl/	mêles /mɛl/	mêle /mɛl/	mêlons /mɛ.lɔ̃/ or /me.lɔ̃/	mêlez /mɛ.le/ or /me.le/	mêlent /mɛl/
	imperfect	mêlais /mɛ.lɛ/ or /me.lɛ/	mêlais /mɛ.lɛ/ or /me.lɛ/	mêlait /mɛ.lɛ/ or /me.lɛ/	mêlions /mɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /me.ljɔ̃/	mêliez /mɛ.lje/ or /me.lje/	mêlaient /mɛ.lɛ/ or /me.lɛ/
	past historic2	mêlai /mɛ.le/ or /me.le/	mêlas /mɛ.la/ or /me.la/	mêla /mɛ.la/ or /me.la/	mêlâmes /mɛ.lam/ or /me.lam/	mêlâtes /mɛ.lat/ or /me.lat/	mêlèrent /mɛ.lɛʁ/ or /me.lɛʁ/
	future	mêlerai /mɛl.ʁe/	mêleras /mɛl.ʁa/	mêlera /mɛl.ʁa/	mêlerons /mɛl.ʁɔ̃/	mêlerez /mɛl.ʁe/	mêleront /mɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mêlerais /mɛl.ʁɛ/	mêlerais /mɛl.ʁɛ/	mêlerait /mɛl.ʁɛ/	mêlerions /mɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /me.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	mêleriez /mɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /me.lə.ʁje/	mêleraient /mɛl.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	mêle /mɛl/	mêles /mɛl/	mêle /mɛl/	mêlions /mɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /me.ljɔ̃/	mêliez /mɛ.lje/ or /me.lje/	mêlent /mɛl/
	imperfect2	mêlasse /mɛ.las/ or /me.las/	mêlasses /mɛ.las/ or /me.las/	mêlât /mɛ.la/ or /me.la/	mêlassions /mɛ.la.sjɔ̃/ or /me.la.sjɔ̃/	mêlassiez /mɛ.la.sje/ or /me.la.sje/	mêlassent /mɛ.las/ or /me.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mêle /mɛl/	—	mêlons /mɛ.lɔ̃/ or /me.lɔ̃/	mêlez /mɛ.le/ or /me.le/	—
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

• de quoi je me mêle
• se mêler de ses affaires
• se mêler de ses oignons

Synonyms

• mélanger

Derived terms

• mélange
• mêlée

Related terms

• métis

References

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

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• merle, Merle

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French mesler, *mescler (“to mingle, mix up”), from Vulgar Latin *misc(u)lō, misc(u)lāre, from Latin misceō.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Verb

mêler (gerund mêl'lie)

1. (Jersey) to mix