emmêler

French

Etymology

From en- +‎ mêler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.mɛ.le/, /ɑ̃.me.le/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

emmêler

1. to tangle (to become mixed together or intertwined)

   Antonym: démêler

Conjugation

Conjugation of emmêler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	emmêler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	emmêlant /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɑ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		emmêlé /ɑ̃.mɛ.le/ or /ɑ̃.me.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	emmêle /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêles /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêle /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêlons /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɔ̃/	emmêlez /ɑ̃.mɛ.le/ or /ɑ̃.me.le/	emmêlent /ɑ̃.mɛl/
	imperfect	emmêlais /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɛ/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɛ/	emmêlais /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɛ/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɛ/	emmêlait /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɛ/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɛ/	emmêlions /ɑ̃.mɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.ljɔ̃/	emmêliez /ɑ̃.mɛ.lje/ or /ɑ̃.me.lje/	emmêlaient /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɛ/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɛ/
	past historic2	emmêlai /ɑ̃.mɛ.le/ or /ɑ̃.me.le/	emmêlas /ɑ̃.mɛ.la/ or /ɑ̃.me.la/	emmêla /ɑ̃.mɛ.la/ or /ɑ̃.me.la/	emmêlâmes /ɑ̃.mɛ.lam/ or /ɑ̃.me.lam/	emmêlâtes /ɑ̃.mɛ.lat/ or /ɑ̃.me.lat/	emmêlèrent /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɛʁ/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɛʁ/
	future	emmêlerai /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁe/	emmêleras /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁa/	emmêlera /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁa/	emmêlerons /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁɔ̃/	emmêlerez /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁe/	emmêleront /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	emmêlerais /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁɛ/	emmêlerais /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁɛ/	emmêlerait /ɑ̃.mɛl.ʁɛ/	emmêlerions /ɑ̃.mɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	emmêleriez /ɑ̃.mɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.me.lə.ʁje/	emmêleraient /ɑ̃.mɛl.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	emmêle /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêles /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêle /ɑ̃.mɛl/	emmêlions /ɑ̃.mɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.ljɔ̃/	emmêliez /ɑ̃.mɛ.lje/ or /ɑ̃.me.lje/	emmêlent /ɑ̃.mɛl/
	imperfect2	emmêlasse /ɑ̃.mɛ.las/ or /ɑ̃.me.las/	emmêlasses /ɑ̃.mɛ.las/ or /ɑ̃.me.las/	emmêlât /ɑ̃.mɛ.la/ or /ɑ̃.me.la/	emmêlassions /ɑ̃.mɛ.la.sjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.la.sjɔ̃/	emmêlassiez /ɑ̃.mɛ.la.sje/ or /ɑ̃.me.la.sje/	emmêlassent /ɑ̃.mɛ.las/ or /ɑ̃.me.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	emmêle /ɑ̃.mɛl/	—	emmêlons /ɑ̃.mɛ.lɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.me.lɔ̃/	emmêlez /ɑ̃.mɛ.le/ or /ɑ̃.me.le/	—
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

• s’emmêler les pinceaux

Further reading

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