démentir
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
Verb
démentir
- to contradict, gainsay (someone)
- to deny, refute (rumour etc.)
- to belie (appearances)
Conjugation
This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The most significant difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) démens and (il) dément in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *démentis and *démentit (as in the past historic).
Conjugation of démentir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | démentir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | démentant /de.mɑ̃.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | démenti /de.mɑ̃.ti/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | démens /de.mɑ̃/ |
démens /de.mɑ̃/ |
dément /de.mɑ̃/ |
démentons /de.mɑ̃.tɔ̃/ |
démentez /de.mɑ̃.te/ |
démentent /de.mɑ̃t/ |
| imperfect | démentais /de.mɑ̃.tɛ/ |
démentais /de.mɑ̃.tɛ/ |
démentait /de.mɑ̃.tɛ/ |
démentions /de.mɑ̃.tjɔ̃/ |
démentiez /de.mɑ̃.tje/ |
démentaient /de.mɑ̃.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | démentis /de.mɑ̃.ti/ |
démentis /de.mɑ̃.ti/ |
démentit /de.mɑ̃.ti/ |
démentîmes /de.mɑ̃.tim/ |
démentîtes /de.mɑ̃.tit/ |
démentirent /de.mɑ̃.tiʁ/ | |
| future | démentirai /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁe/ |
démentiras /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁa/ |
démentira /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁa/ |
démentirons /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/ |
démentirez /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁe/ |
démentiront /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | démentirais /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/ |
démentirais /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/ |
démentirait /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/ |
démentirions /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁjɔ̃/ |
démentiriez /de.mɑ̃.ti.ʁje/ |
démentiraient /de.mɑ̃.ti.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 | démente /de.mɑ̃t/ |
démentes /de.mɑ̃t/ |
démente /de.mɑ̃t/ |
démentions /de.mɑ̃.tjɔ̃/ |
démentiez /de.mɑ̃.tje/ |
démentent /de.mɑ̃t/ |
| imperfect2 | démentisse /de.mɑ̃.tis/ |
démentisses /de.mɑ̃.tis/ |
démentît /de.mɑ̃.ti/ |
démentissions /de.mɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/ |
démentissiez /de.mɑ̃.ti.sje/ |
démentissent /de.mɑ̃.tis/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | démens /de.mɑ̃/ |
— | démentons /de.mɑ̃.tɔ̃/ |
démentez /de.mɑ̃.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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Descendants
- → German: dementieren
Further reading
- “démentir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.