desservir

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.sɛʁ.viʁ/

Etymology 1

From Old French deservir, from Latin dēservīre, present active infinitive of dēserviō.

Verb

desservir

1. (religion, transitive) to serve (be the pastor of a church)
2. (transitive, transport) to serve (of a train or bus, to stop at a particular town)

   Ce train dessert les grandes villes de la région.

   This train serves the big towns in the region.

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) dessers and (il) dessert in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *desservis and *desservit (as in the past historic).

Conjugation of desservir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	desservir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	desservant /de.sɛʁ.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		desservi /de.sɛʁ.vi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	dessers /de.sɛʁ/	dessers /de.sɛʁ/	dessert /de.sɛʁ/	desservons /de.sɛʁ.vɔ̃/	desservez /de.sɛʁ.ve/	desservent /de.sɛʁv/
	imperfect	desservais /de.sɛʁ.vɛ/	desservais /de.sɛʁ.vɛ/	desservait /de.sɛʁ.vɛ/	desservions /de.sɛʁ.vjɔ̃/	desserviez /de.sɛʁ.vje/	desservaient /de.sɛʁ.vɛ/
	past historic2	desservis /de.sɛʁ.vi/	desservis /de.sɛʁ.vi/	desservit /de.sɛʁ.vi/	desservîmes /de.sɛʁ.vim/	desservîtes /de.sɛʁ.vit/	desservirent /de.sɛʁ.viʁ/
	future	desservirai /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁe/	desserviras /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁa/	desservira /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁa/	desservirons /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɔ̃/	desservirez /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁe/	desserviront /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	desservirais /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	desservirais /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	desservirait /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁɛ/	desservirions /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁjɔ̃/	desserviriez /de.sɛʁ.vi.ʁje/	desserviraient /de.sɛʁ.vi.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	desserve /de.sɛʁv/	desserves /de.sɛʁv/	desserve /de.sɛʁv/	desservions /de.sɛʁ.vjɔ̃/	desserviez /de.sɛʁ.vje/	desservent /de.sɛʁv/
	imperfect2	desservisse /de.sɛʁ.vis/	desservisses /de.sɛʁ.vis/	desservît /de.sɛʁ.vi/	desservissions /de.sɛʁ.vi.sjɔ̃/	desservissiez /de.sɛʁ.vi.sje/	desservissent /de.sɛʁ.vis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	dessers /de.sɛʁ/	—	desservons /de.sɛʁ.vɔ̃/	desservez /de.sɛʁ.ve/	—
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).

Etymology 2

From Old French desservir, from dé- +‎ servir; cf. etymology 1.

Verb

desservir

1. (transitive) to clear, clear away (e.g. a table)

Etymology 3

From servir, with the prefix dé- (from Latin dis-).

Verb

desservir

1. to do a disservice, to perform ill offices to someone

Further reading

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