avorter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Latin abortāre (“to bring forth prematurely”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.vɔʁ.te/

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Verb

avorter

1. (intransitive, of a mission and etc) to fail, to come to an end
2. (intransitive, of a female) to have an abortion
3. (causative) to abort, to terminate
4. (causative) to cause an abortion

   Elle a fait avorter le bébé. ― She aborted the baby.

5. (law) (of a procedure) To end in a mistrial.

Conjugation

Conjugation of avorter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	avorter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	avortant /a.vɔʁ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		avorté /a.vɔʁ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	avorte /a.vɔʁt/	avortes /a.vɔʁt/	avorte /a.vɔʁt/	avortons /a.vɔʁ.tɔ̃/	avortez /a.vɔʁ.te/	avortent /a.vɔʁt/
	imperfect	avortais /a.vɔʁ.tɛ/	avortais /a.vɔʁ.tɛ/	avortait /a.vɔʁ.tɛ/	avortions /a.vɔʁ.tjɔ̃/	avortiez /a.vɔʁ.tje/	avortaient /a.vɔʁ.tɛ/
	past historic2	avortai /a.vɔʁ.te/	avortas /a.vɔʁ.ta/	avorta /a.vɔʁ.ta/	avortâmes /a.vɔʁ.tam/	avortâtes /a.vɔʁ.tat/	avortèrent /a.vɔʁ.tɛʁ/
	future	avorterai /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁe/	avorteras /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁa/	avortera /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁa/	avorterons /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/	avorterez /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁe/	avorteront /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	avorterais /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	avorterais /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	avorterait /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	avorterions /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	avorteriez /a.vɔʁ.tə.ʁje/	avorteraient /a.vɔʁ.tə.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	avorte /a.vɔʁt/	avortes /a.vɔʁt/	avorte /a.vɔʁt/	avortions /a.vɔʁ.tjɔ̃/	avortiez /a.vɔʁ.tje/	avortent /a.vɔʁt/
	imperfect2	avortasse /a.vɔʁ.tas/	avortasses /a.vɔʁ.tas/	avortât /a.vɔʁ.ta/	avortassions /a.vɔʁ.ta.sjɔ̃/	avortassiez /a.vɔʁ.ta.sje/	avortassent /a.vɔʁ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	avorte /a.vɔʁt/	—	avortons /a.vɔʁ.tɔ̃/	avortez /a.vɔʁ.te/	—
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

• avortoir

Related terms

• avortement
• avorteur

Further reading

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