empêcher

French

Etymology

From Old French empeechier, inherited from Latin impedicāre, present active infinitive of impedicō. Cognate with English impeach. Doublet of empiéger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe/, /ɑ̃.pe.ʃe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

empêcher

1. (transitive) to stop; to prevent; to hinder
2. (reflexive) to refrain (used with de)

Conjugation

Conjugation of empêcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	empêcher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	empêchant /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɑ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		empêché /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	empêche /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêches /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêche /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêchons /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɔ̃/	empêchez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃe/	empêchent /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/
	imperfect	empêchais /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɛ/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɛ/	empêchais /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɛ/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɛ/	empêchait /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɛ/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɛ/	empêchions /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃjɔ̃/	empêchiez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃje/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃje/	empêchaient /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɛ/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	empêchai /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃe/	empêchas /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃa/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃa/	empêcha /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃa/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃa/	empêchâmes /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃam/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃam/	empêchâtes /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃat/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃat/	empêchèrent /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɛʁ/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɛʁ/
	future	empêcherai /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁe/	empêcheras /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁa/	empêchera /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁa/	empêcherons /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	empêcherez /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁe/	empêcheront /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	empêcherais /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	empêcherais /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	empêcherait /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	empêcherions /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	empêcheriez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃə.ʁje/	empêcheraient /ɑ̃.pɛʃ.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	empêche /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêches /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêche /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	empêchions /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃjɔ̃/	empêchiez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃje/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃje/	empêchent /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/
	imperfect2	empêchasse /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃas/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃas/	empêchasses /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃas/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃas/	empêchât /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃa/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃa/	empêchassions /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	empêchassiez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃa.sje/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃa.sje/	empêchassent /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃas/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	empêche /ɑ̃.pɛʃ/	—	empêchons /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃɔ̃/	empêchez /ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe/ or /ɑ̃.pe.ʃe/	—
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).

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:empêcher.

Derived terms

• empêcheur
• n’empêche

Further reading

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