bénir

See also: benir

French

Etymology

From Old French beneïr, inherited from Latin benedīcere, present active infinive of benedicō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be.niʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

bénir

1. to bless

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 bénir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bénir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bénissant /be.ni.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		béni /be.ni/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bénis /be.ni/	bénis /be.ni/	bénit /be.ni/	bénissons /be.ni.sɔ̃/	bénissez /be.ni.se/	bénissent /be.nis/
	imperfect	bénissais /be.ni.sɛ/	bénissais /be.ni.sɛ/	bénissait /be.ni.sɛ/	bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/	bénissiez /be.ni.sje/	bénissaient /be.ni.sɛ/
	past historic2	bénis /be.ni/	bénis /be.ni/	bénit /be.ni/	bénîmes /be.nim/	bénîtes /be.nit/	bénirent /be.niʁ/
	future	bénirai /be.ni.ʁe/	béniras /be.ni.ʁa/	bénira /be.ni.ʁa/	bénirons /be.ni.ʁɔ̃/	bénirez /be.ni.ʁe/	béniront /be.ni.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bénirais /be.ni.ʁɛ/	bénirais /be.ni.ʁɛ/	bénirait /be.ni.ʁɛ/	bénirions /be.ni.ʁjɔ̃/	béniriez /be.ni.ʁje/	béniraient /be.ni.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	bénisse /be.nis/	bénisses /be.nis/	bénisse /be.nis/	bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/	bénissiez /be.ni.sje/	bénissent /be.nis/
	imperfect2	bénisse /be.nis/	bénisses /be.nis/	bénît /be.ni/	bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/	bénissiez /be.ni.sje/	bénissent /be.nis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bénis /be.ni/	—	bénissons /be.ni.sɔ̃/	bénissez /be.ni.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

• bénit

Related terms

• bénédiction
• benoît, Benoît
• dire
• maudire

Further reading

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