aboutir

French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French aboutir (“to endure stubbornly, persist”), derived from bouter (“to persist”), ultimately of (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  origin, equivalent to a- +‎ bouter. See also bout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bu.tiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

aboutir

1. (literally, transitive, with à) to lead to, to end up in, to reach
2. (figuratively, transitive, with à) to lead to, to have the consequence of
3. (intransitive) to reach a conclusion, to succeed
4. (intransitive) to touch by one end

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 aboutir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	aboutir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	aboutissant /a.bu.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abouti /a.bu.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutit /a.bu.ti/	aboutissons /a.bu.ti.sɔ̃/	aboutissez /a.bu.ti.se/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
	imperfect	aboutissais /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissais /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissait /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissaient /a.bu.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutit /a.bu.ti/	aboutîmes /a.bu.tim/	aboutîtes /a.bu.tit/	aboutirent /a.bu.tiʁ/
	future	aboutirai /a.bu.ti.ʁe/	aboutiras /a.bu.ti.ʁa/	aboutira /a.bu.ti.ʁa/	aboutirons /a.bu.ti.ʁɔ̃/	aboutirez /a.bu.ti.ʁe/	aboutiront /a.bu.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	aboutirais /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirais /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirait /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirions /a.bu.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	aboutiriez /a.bu.ti.ʁje/	aboutiraient /a.bu.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	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutisses /a.bu.tis/	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
	imperfect2	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutisses /a.bu.tis/	aboutît /a.bu.ti/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	—	aboutissons /a.bu.ti.sɔ̃/	aboutissez /a.bu.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).

Derived terms

• aboutissement
• tenants et aboutissants

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• abrouti
• broutai