culbuter

French

Etymology

From culer + buter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kyl.by.te/

Verb

culbuter

1. (intransitive) to take a tumble, fall over (of a person); to overturn (of vehicle)
2. (transitive) (vulgar) to have sex with someone, describing what one person does to another rather than what both do together.

   Pourquoi aurait-il échappé à la règle ? Combien de jouvencelles avait-il culbutées jadis ; combien de maris avait-il mis dans la situation où il se trouvait à l’heure actuelle ?

   Why would the rule not apply to him? How many young girls had he banged before; how many husband had he put in the very situation he was in now?

   (source: Louis Pergaud, La Vengeance du père Jourgeot, in Les Rustiques, nouvelles villageoises, 1921)

Conjugation

Conjugation of culbuter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	culbuter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	culbutant /kyl.by.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		culbuté /kyl.by.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	culbute /kyl.byt/	culbutes /kyl.byt/	culbute /kyl.byt/	culbutons /kyl.by.tɔ̃/	culbutez /kyl.by.te/	culbutent /kyl.byt/
	imperfect	culbutais /kyl.by.tɛ/	culbutais /kyl.by.tɛ/	culbutait /kyl.by.tɛ/	culbutions /kyl.by.tjɔ̃/	culbutiez /kyl.by.tje/	culbutaient /kyl.by.tɛ/
	past historic2	culbutai /kyl.by.te/	culbutas /kyl.by.ta/	culbuta /kyl.by.ta/	culbutâmes /kyl.by.tam/	culbutâtes /kyl.by.tat/	culbutèrent /kyl.by.tɛʁ/
	future	culbuterai /kyl.by.tʁe/	culbuteras /kyl.by.tʁa/	culbutera /kyl.by.tʁa/	culbuterons /kyl.by.tʁɔ̃/	culbuterez /kyl.by.tʁe/	culbuteront /kyl.by.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	culbuterais /kyl.by.tʁɛ/	culbuterais /kyl.by.tʁɛ/	culbuterait /kyl.by.tʁɛ/	culbuterions /kyl.by.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	culbuteriez /kyl.by.tə.ʁje/	culbuteraient /kyl.by.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	culbute /kyl.byt/	culbutes /kyl.byt/	culbute /kyl.byt/	culbutions /kyl.by.tjɔ̃/	culbutiez /kyl.by.tje/	culbutent /kyl.byt/
	imperfect2	culbutasse /kyl.by.tas/	culbutasses /kyl.by.tas/	culbutât /kyl.by.ta/	culbutassions /kyl.by.ta.sjɔ̃/	culbutassiez /kyl.by.ta.sje/	culbutassent /kyl.by.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	culbute /kyl.byt/	—	culbutons /kyl.by.tɔ̃/	culbutez /kyl.by.te/	—
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

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