croître

See also: croitre

French

Alternative forms

• croitre (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

From Middle French croistre, from Old French croistre, creistre, from Latin crēscere, present active infinitive of crēscō, from Proto-Italic *krēskō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱreh₁- (“to grow, become bigger”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁwatʁ/, /kʁwɑtʁ/

• audio

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Verb

croître

1. to grow

   Antonym: décroître

Conjugation

This verb takes an especially irregular conjugation, taking circumflexes in many forms, so as to distinguish from the forms of the verb croire.

Conjugation of croître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	croître
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	croissant /kʁwa.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		crû /kʁy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	croîs /kʁwa/	croîs /kʁwa/	croît /kʁwa/	croissons /kʁwa.sɔ̃/	croissez /kʁwa.se/	croissent /kʁwas/
	imperfect	croissais /kʁwa.sɛ/	croissais /kʁwa.sɛ/	croissait /kʁwa.sɛ/	croissions /kʁwa.sjɔ̃/	croissiez /kʁwa.sje/	croissaient /kʁwa.sɛ/
	past historic2	crûs /kʁy/	crûs /kʁy/	crût /kʁy/	crûmes /kʁym/	crûtes /kʁyt/	crûrent /kʁyʁ/
	future	croîtrai /kʁwa.tʁe/	croîtras /kʁwa.tʁa/	croîtra /kʁwa.tʁa/	croîtrons /kʁwa.tʁɔ̃/	croîtrez /kʁwa.tʁe/	croîtront /kʁwa.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	croîtrais /kʁwa.tʁɛ/	croîtrais /kʁwa.tʁɛ/	croîtrait /kʁwa.tʁɛ/	croîtrions /kʁwa.tʁi.jɔ̃/	croîtriez /kʁwa.tʁi.je/	croîtraient /kʁwa.tʁɛ/
(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	croisse /kʁwas/	croisses /kʁwas/	croisse /kʁwas/	croissions /kʁwa.sjɔ̃/	croissiez /kʁwa.sje/	croissent /kʁwas/
	imperfect2	crûsse /kʁys/	crûsses /kʁys/	crût /kʁy/	crûssions /kʁy.sjɔ̃/	crûssiez /kʁy.sje/	crûssent /kʁys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	croîs /kʁwa/	—	croissons /kʁwa.sɔ̃/	croissez /kʁwa.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).

Related terms

• croissance
• croissant

Further reading

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