férir

See also: ferir

French

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *bʰéryeti

Proto-Italic *ferjō

Latin feriō

Old French ferir

Middle French ferir

French férir

Inherited from Middle French, Old French ferir, from Latin ferīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe.ʁiʁ/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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Verb

férir (defective)

1. (obsolete) to hit, strike

Conjugation

This verb is defective and is virtually never conjugated in Modern French, except in a few set phrases or as a mark of extreme archaism. Most of its uses stem from variations on sans coup férir.

Conjugation of férir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	férir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	—
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		féru /fe.ʁy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	—	—	—	—	—	—
	imperfect	—	—	—	—	—	—
	past historic2	—	—	—	—	—	—
	future	—	—	—	—	—	—
	conditional	—	—	—	—	—	—
(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	—	—	—	—	—	—
	imperfect2	—	—	—	—	—	—
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	—	—	—	—	—
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).

Related terms

• féru
• sans coup férir

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• frire