dessécher

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin dēsiccāre, present active infinitive of dēsiccō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.se.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: desséchai, desséché, desséchée, desséchées, desséchés, desséchez

Verb

dessécher

1. (transitive) to dry, to dry out
2. (reflexive) to dry out
   • 1837 Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:

     Enfin, notre hidalgo s’acharna tellement à sa lecture, que ses nuits se passaient en lisant du soir au matin, et ses jours, du matin au soir. Si bien qu’à force de dormir peu et de lire beaucoup, il se dessécha le cerveau, de manière qu’il vint à perdre l’esprit.

     Finally, our hidalgo attached himself so much to his reading that his nights were spent reading from evening to moring, and his days, from morning to evening. So much so that because of his little sleep and excessive reading, he dried out his brain in such a way that he lost his mind.

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written dessécher-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written dessècher-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of dessécher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	dessécher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	desséchant /de.se.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		desséché /de.se.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	dessèche /de.sɛʃ/	dessèches /de.sɛʃ/	dessèche /de.sɛʃ/	desséchons /de.se.ʃɔ̃/	desséchez /de.se.ʃe/	dessèchent /de.sɛʃ/
	imperfect	desséchais /de.se.ʃɛ/	desséchais /de.se.ʃɛ/	desséchait /de.se.ʃɛ/	desséchions /de.se.ʃjɔ̃/	desséchiez /de.se.ʃje/	desséchaient /de.se.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	desséchai /de.se.ʃe/	desséchas /de.se.ʃa/	dessécha /de.se.ʃa/	desséchâmes /de.se.ʃam/	desséchâtes /de.se.ʃat/	desséchèrent /de.se.ʃɛʁ/
	future	dessècherai or dessécherai /de.sɛʃ.ʁe/	dessècheras or dessécheras /de.sɛʃ.ʁa/	dessèchera or desséchera /de.sɛʃ.ʁa/	dessècherons or dessécherons /de.sɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	dessècherez or dessécherez /de.sɛʃ.ʁe/	dessècheront or dessécheront /de.sɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	dessècherais or dessécherais /de.sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	dessècherais or dessécherais /de.sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	dessècherait or dessécherait /de.sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	dessècherions or dessécherions /de.sɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /de.se.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	dessècheriez or dessécheriez /de.sɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /de.se.ʃə.ʁje/	dessècheraient or dessécheraient /de.sɛʃ.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	dessèche /de.sɛʃ/	dessèches /de.sɛʃ/	dessèche /de.sɛʃ/	desséchions /de.se.ʃjɔ̃/	desséchiez /de.se.ʃje/	dessèchent /de.sɛʃ/
	imperfect2	desséchasse /de.se.ʃas/	desséchasses /de.se.ʃas/	desséchât /de.se.ʃa/	desséchassions /de.se.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	desséchassiez /de.se.ʃa.sje/	desséchassent /de.se.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	dessèche /de.sɛʃ/	—	desséchons /de.se.ʃɔ̃/	desséchez /de.se.ʃe/	—
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).

Related terms

• dessiccation
• sécher

Further reading

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