cueillir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French coillir, formed analogically, with the verbal suffix -ir, from cueil, stressed conjugated form of the original cueudre, cueildre, cueldre, from Latin colligere (“collect”), from con- (“with, together”) + legō (“bring together, gather, collect”). Doublet of colliger.

Pronunciation

• (standard) IPA^(key): /kœ.jiʁ/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /kœ.jɪ(ː)ɾ/, /kœ.jiːʁ/

• Audio (Canada)

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Verb

cueillir

1. to gather, pick
2. to grab, snatch, nab

Conjugation

Conjugation of cueillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cueillir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	cueillant /kœ.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cueilli /kœ.ji/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cueille /kœj/	cueilles /kœj/	cueille /kœj/	cueillons /kœ.jɔ̃/	cueillez /kœ.je/	cueillent /kœj/
	imperfect	cueillais /kœ.jɛ/	cueillais /kœ.jɛ/	cueillait /kœ.jɛ/	cueillions /kœj.jɔ̃/	cueilliez /kœj.je/	cueillaient /kœ.jɛ/
	past historic2	cueillis /kœ.ji/	cueillis /kœ.ji/	cueillit /kœ.ji/	cueillîmes /kœ.jim/	cueillîtes /kœ.jit/	cueillirent /kœ.jiʁ/
	future	cueillirai or cueillerai /kœ.ji.ʁe/ or /kœj.ʁe/	cueilliras or cueilleras /kœ.ji.ʁa/ or /kœj.ʁa/	cueillira or cueillera /kœ.ji.ʁa/ or /kœj.ʁa/	cueillirons or cueillerons /kœ.ji.ʁɔ̃/ or /kœj.ʁɔ̃/	cueillirez or cueillerez /kœ.ji.ʁe/ or /kœj.ʁe/	cueilliront or cueilleront /kœ.ji.ʁɔ̃/ or /kœj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cueillirais or cueillerais /kœ.ji.ʁɛ/ or /kœj.ʁɛ/	cueillirais or cueillerais /kœ.ji.ʁɛ/ or /kœj.ʁɛ/	cueillirait or cueillerait /kœ.ji.ʁɛ/ or /kœj.ʁɛ/	cueillirions or cueillerions /kœ.ji.ʁjɔ̃/ or /kœ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	cueilliriez or cueilleriez /kœ.ji.ʁje/ or /kœ.jə.ʁje/	cueilliraient or cueilleraient /kœ.ji.ʁɛ/ or /kœj.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	cueille /kœj/	cueilles /kœj/	cueille /kœj/	cueillions /kœj.jɔ̃/	cueilliez /kœj.je/	cueillent /kœj/
	imperfect2	cueillisse /kœ.jis/	cueillisses /kœ.jis/	cueillît /kœ.ji/	cueillissions /kœ.ji.sjɔ̃/	cueillissiez /kœ.ji.sje/	cueillissent /kœ.jis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cueille /kœj/	—	cueillons /kœ.jɔ̃/	cueillez /kœ.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).

Related terms

• cueilleur
• cueillette

Further reading

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