caracoler

French

Verb

caracoler

1. (of a horse) to caracole
2. go round and round, buzz round, flit about, flit around
3. (figuratively) to sit pretty, to be (well) ahead, nestle (appear comfortable at the top of a ranking)

   ses tubes caracolent en tête du classement

   their tunes are high at the top of the charts.

Conjugation

Conjugation of caracoler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	caracoler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	caracolant /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		caracolé /ka.ʁa.kɔ.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	caracole /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracoles /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracole /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracolons /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɔ̃/	caracolez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.le/	caracolent /ka.ʁa.kɔl/
	imperfect	caracolais /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɛ/	caracolais /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɛ/	caracolait /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɛ/	caracolions /ka.ʁa.kɔ.ljɔ̃/	caracoliez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lje/	caracolaient /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɛ/
	past historic2	caracolai /ka.ʁa.kɔ.le/	caracolas /ka.ʁa.kɔ.la/	caracola /ka.ʁa.kɔ.la/	caracolâmes /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lam/	caracolâtes /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lat/	caracolèrent /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɛʁ/
	future	caracolerai /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁe/	caracoleras /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁa/	caracolera /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁa/	caracolerons /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁɔ̃/	caracolerez /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁe/	caracoleront /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	caracolerais /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁɛ/	caracolerais /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁɛ/	caracolerait /ka.ʁa.kɔl.ʁɛ/	caracolerions /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	caracoleriez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lə.ʁje/	caracoleraient /ka.ʁa.kɔl.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	caracole /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracoles /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracole /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	caracolions /ka.ʁa.kɔ.ljɔ̃/	caracoliez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lje/	caracolent /ka.ʁa.kɔl/
	imperfect2	caracolasse /ka.ʁa.kɔ.las/	caracolasses /ka.ʁa.kɔ.las/	caracolât /ka.ʁa.kɔ.la/	caracolassions /ka.ʁa.kɔ.la.sjɔ̃/	caracolassiez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.la.sje/	caracolassent /ka.ʁa.kɔ.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	caracole /ka.ʁa.kɔl/	—	caracolons /ka.ʁa.kɔ.lɔ̃/	caracolez /ka.ʁa.kɔ.le/	—
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).

Further reading

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