effacer

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English efface

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āsjos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English effacer

From efface + -er.

Noun

effacer (plural effacers)

1. One who effaces.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French esfacier.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.fa.se/

• Audio:

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Verb

effacer

1. to erase
2. to efface

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of effacer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	effacer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	effaçant /e.fa.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		effacé /e.fa.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	efface /e.fas/	effaces /e.fas/	efface /e.fas/	effaçons /e.fa.sɔ̃/	effacez /e.fa.se/	effacent /e.fas/
	imperfect	effaçais /e.fa.sɛ/	effaçais /e.fa.sɛ/	effaçait /e.fa.sɛ/	effacions /e.fa.sjɔ̃/	effaciez /e.fa.sje/	effaçaient /e.fa.sɛ/
	past historic2	effaçai /e.fa.se/	effaças /e.fa.sa/	effaça /e.fa.sa/	effaçâmes /e.fa.sam/	effaçâtes /e.fa.sat/	effacèrent /e.fa.sɛʁ/
	future	effacerai /e.fa.sʁe/	effaceras /e.fa.sʁa/	effacera /e.fa.sʁa/	effacerons /e.fa.sʁɔ̃/	effacerez /e.fa.sʁe/	effaceront /e.fa.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	effacerais /e.fa.sʁɛ/	effacerais /e.fa.sʁɛ/	effacerait /e.fa.sʁɛ/	effacerions /e.fa.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	effaceriez /e.fa.sə.ʁje/	effaceraient /e.fa.sʁɛ/
(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	efface /e.fas/	effaces /e.fas/	efface /e.fas/	effacions /e.fa.sjɔ̃/	effaciez /e.fa.sje/	effacent /e.fas/
	imperfect2	effaçasse /e.fa.sas/	effaçasses /e.fa.sas/	effaçât /e.fa.sa/	effaçassions /e.fa.sa.sjɔ̃/	effaçassiez /e.fa.sa.sje/	effaçassent /e.fa.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	efface /e.fas/	—	effaçons /e.fa.sɔ̃/	effacez /e.fa.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).

Derived terms

• effacement
• effaceur

Further reading

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