bouillir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French bouillir, from Old French boillir (“to boil, burst”), inherited from Latin bullīre (“to bubble”), derived from Latin bulla (“bubble, bud, button”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.jiʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

bouillir

1. (intransitive) to boil (becoming boiling; reach boiling point)
2. (transitive) to boil (cause to boil)
3. (figuratively) to seethe

Conjugation

Conjugation of bouillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bouillir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bouillant /bu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bouilli /bu.ji/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bous /bu/	bous /bu/	bout /bu/	bouillons /bu.jɔ̃/	bouillez /bu.je/	bouillent /buj/
	imperfect	bouillais /bu.jɛ/	bouillais /bu.jɛ/	bouillait /bu.jɛ/	bouillions /buj.jɔ̃/	bouilliez /buj.je/	bouillaient /bu.jɛ/
	past historic2	bouillis /bu.ji/	bouillis /bu.ji/	bouillit /bu.ji/	bouillîmes /bu.jim/	bouillîtes /bu.jit/	bouillirent /bu.jiʁ/
	future	bouillirai /bu.ji.ʁe/	bouilliras /bu.ji.ʁa/	bouillira /bu.ji.ʁa/	bouillirons /bu.ji.ʁɔ̃/	bouillirez /bu.ji.ʁe/	bouilliront /bu.ji.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bouillirais /bu.ji.ʁɛ/	bouillirais /bu.ji.ʁɛ/	bouillirait /bu.ji.ʁɛ/	bouillirions /bu.ji.ʁjɔ̃/	bouilliriez /bu.ji.ʁje/	bouilliraient /bu.ji.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	bouille /buj/	bouilles /buj/	bouille /buj/	bouillions /buj.jɔ̃/	bouilliez /buj.je/	bouillent /buj/
	imperfect2	bouillisse /bu.jis/	bouillisses /bu.jis/	bouillît /bu.ji/	bouillissions /bu.ji.sjɔ̃/	bouillissiez /bu.ji.sje/	bouillissent /bu.jis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bous /bu/	—	bouillons /bu.jɔ̃/	bouillez /bu.je/	—
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

• faire bouillir la marmite

Related terms

• bouillabaisse
• bouillant
  • ébouillanter
• bouilloire
• bouillon
• bulle
• ébullition

Further reading

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

Middle French

Verb

bouillir

1. to boil