abêtir

French

Etymology

a- +‎ bête +‎ -ir

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bɛ.tiʁ/ ~ /a.be.tiʁ/, /a.be.tiʁ/

• Audio:

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Verb

abêtir

1. (transitive, intransitive, ergative) to dumb down, render dumb, dim-witted; to deaden the mind of
2. (reflexive, ergative) to become dim-witted and foolish

Usage notes

• Abrutir is a close synonym, but unlike that term abêtir implies a slower, progressive process, which abrutir does not necessarily do.

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of abêtir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	abêtir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	abêtissant /a.bɛ.ti.sɑ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abêti /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	abêtis /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtis /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtit /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtissons /a.bɛ.ti.sɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sɔ̃/	abêtissez /a.bɛ.ti.se/ or /a.be.ti.se/	abêtissent /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/
	imperfect	abêtissais /a.bɛ.ti.sɛ/ or /a.be.ti.sɛ/	abêtissais /a.bɛ.ti.sɛ/ or /a.be.ti.sɛ/	abêtissait /a.bɛ.ti.sɛ/ or /a.be.ti.sɛ/	abêtissions /a.bɛ.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sjɔ̃/	abêtissiez /a.bɛ.ti.sje/ or /a.be.ti.sje/	abêtissaient /a.bɛ.ti.sɛ/ or /a.be.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	abêtis /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtis /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtit /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtîmes /a.bɛ.tim/ or /a.be.tim/	abêtîtes /a.bɛ.tit/ or /a.be.tit/	abêtirent /a.bɛ.tiʁ/ or /a.be.tiʁ/
	future	abêtirai /a.bɛ.ti.ʁe/ or /a.be.ti.ʁe/	abêtiras /a.bɛ.ti.ʁa/ or /a.be.ti.ʁa/	abêtira /a.bɛ.ti.ʁa/ or /a.be.ti.ʁa/	abêtirons /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.ʁɔ̃/	abêtirez /a.bɛ.ti.ʁe/ or /a.be.ti.ʁe/	abêtiront /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	abêtirais /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /a.be.ti.ʁɛ/	abêtirais /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /a.be.ti.ʁɛ/	abêtirait /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /a.be.ti.ʁɛ/	abêtirions /a.bɛ.ti.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	abêtiriez /a.bɛ.ti.ʁje/ or /a.be.ti.ʁje/	abêtiraient /a.bɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /a.be.ti.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	abêtisse /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/	abêtisses /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/	abêtisse /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/	abêtissions /a.bɛ.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sjɔ̃/	abêtissiez /a.bɛ.ti.sje/ or /a.be.ti.sje/	abêtissent /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/
	imperfect2	abêtisse /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/	abêtisses /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/	abêtît /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	abêtissions /a.bɛ.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sjɔ̃/	abêtissiez /a.bɛ.ti.sje/ or /a.be.ti.sje/	abêtissent /a.bɛ.tis/ or /a.be.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	abêtis /a.bɛ.ti/ or /a.be.ti/	—	abêtissons /a.bɛ.ti.sɔ̃/ or /a.be.ti.sɔ̃/	abêtissez /a.bɛ.ti.se/ or /a.be.ti.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).

Related terms

• abêtissant
• abêtissement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• abrite, abrité