courir

French

Etymology

From Old French courre, corre (modified under the influence of -ir verbs), from Latin currere, present active infinitive of currō (“I run”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ʁiʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

courir

1. to run
2. (Louisiana) to go

   Courez chercher mon livre! ― Go get my book!

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like other regular -ir verbs, except that in the conditional and future tenses an extra 'r' is added to the end of the stem and the past participle ends in -u. All verb ending in -courir are conjugated this way.

Conjugation of courir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	courir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	courant /ku.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		couru /ku.ʁy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cours /kuʁ/	cours /kuʁ/	court /kuʁ/	courons /ku.ʁɔ̃/	courez /ku.ʁe/	courent /kuʁ/
	imperfect	courais /ku.ʁɛ/	courais /ku.ʁɛ/	courait /ku.ʁɛ/	courions /ku.ʁjɔ̃/	couriez /ku.ʁje/	couraient /ku.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	courus /ku.ʁy/	courus /ku.ʁy/	courut /ku.ʁy/	courûmes /ku.ʁym/	courûtes /ku.ʁyt/	coururent /ku.ʁyʁ/
	future	courrai /kuʁ.ʁe/	courras /kuʁ.ʁa/	courra /kuʁ.ʁa/	courrons /kuʁ.ʁɔ̃/	courrez /kuʁ.ʁe/	courront /kuʁ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	courrais /kuʁ.ʁɛ/	courrais /kuʁ.ʁɛ/	courrait /kuʁ.ʁɛ/	courrions /kuʁ.ʁjɔ̃/	courriez /kuʁ.ʁje/	courraient /kuʁ.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	coure /kuʁ/	coures /kuʁ/	coure /kuʁ/	courions /ku.ʁjɔ̃/	couriez /ku.ʁje/	courent /kuʁ/
	imperfect2	courusse /ku.ʁys/	courusses /ku.ʁys/	courût /ku.ʁy/	courussions /ku.ʁy.sjɔ̃/	courussiez /ku.ʁy.sje/	courussent /ku.ʁys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cours /kuʁ/	—	courons /ku.ʁɔ̃/	courez /ku.ʁe/	—
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

• courir le risque

Related terms

• courre
• courrier
• cours
• curseur
• discourir

• encourir
• parcourir
• recourir
• secourir

Further reading

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