gêner

See also: gener

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French genner, from Old French gehisner, derivative of gehine (“torture resulting from confession, embarrassment”), of Frankish origin. By surface analysis, gêne +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒɛ.ne/, /ʒe.ne/

• audio

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Verb

gêner

1. to hinder, hamper, bother
2. to bother, annoy, irritate
3. to embarrass

   Arrête de me regarder comme ça, ça me gêne.

   Stop looking at me like that; it's making me uncomfortable.

4. (reflexive) to be bothered about something

   Ne te gêne pas, surtout ! ― Don't mind me!

   Je vais me gêner, tiens ! ― See if I care!

Conjugation

Conjugation of gêner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	gêner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	gênant /ʒɛ.nɑ̃/ or /ʒe.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		gêné /ʒɛ.ne/ or /ʒe.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	gêne /ʒɛn/	gênes /ʒɛn/	gêne /ʒɛn/	gênons /ʒɛ.nɔ̃/ or /ʒe.nɔ̃/	gênez /ʒɛ.ne/ or /ʒe.ne/	gênent /ʒɛn/
	imperfect	gênais /ʒɛ.nɛ/ or /ʒe.nɛ/	gênais /ʒɛ.nɛ/ or /ʒe.nɛ/	gênait /ʒɛ.nɛ/ or /ʒe.nɛ/	gênions /ʒɛ.njɔ̃/ or /ʒe.njɔ̃/	gêniez /ʒɛ.nje/ or /ʒe.nje/	gênaient /ʒɛ.nɛ/ or /ʒe.nɛ/
	past historic2	gênai /ʒɛ.ne/ or /ʒe.ne/	gênas /ʒɛ.na/ or /ʒe.na/	gêna /ʒɛ.na/ or /ʒe.na/	gênâmes /ʒɛ.nam/ or /ʒe.nam/	gênâtes /ʒɛ.nat/ or /ʒe.nat/	gênèrent /ʒɛ.nɛʁ/ or /ʒe.nɛʁ/
	future	gênerai /ʒɛn.ʁe/	gêneras /ʒɛn.ʁa/	gênera /ʒɛn.ʁa/	gênerons /ʒɛn.ʁɔ̃/	gênerez /ʒɛn.ʁe/	gêneront /ʒɛn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	gênerais /ʒɛn.ʁɛ/	gênerais /ʒɛn.ʁɛ/	gênerait /ʒɛn.ʁɛ/	gênerions /ʒɛ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʒe.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	gêneriez /ʒɛ.nə.ʁje/ or /ʒe.nə.ʁje/	gêneraient /ʒɛn.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	gêne /ʒɛn/	gênes /ʒɛn/	gêne /ʒɛn/	gênions /ʒɛ.njɔ̃/ or /ʒe.njɔ̃/	gêniez /ʒɛ.nje/ or /ʒe.nje/	gênent /ʒɛn/
	imperfect2	gênasse /ʒɛ.nas/ or /ʒe.nas/	gênasses /ʒɛ.nas/ or /ʒe.nas/	gênât /ʒɛ.na/ or /ʒe.na/	gênassions /ʒɛ.na.sjɔ̃/ or /ʒe.na.sjɔ̃/	gênassiez /ʒɛ.na.sje/ or /ʒe.na.sje/	gênassent /ʒɛ.nas/ or /ʒe.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	gêne /ʒɛn/	—	gênons /ʒɛ.nɔ̃/ or /ʒe.nɔ̃/	gênez /ʒɛ.ne/ or /ʒe.ne/	—
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

• gênant
• gêner aux entournures

Descendants

• Danish: genere
• German: genieren
• Esperanto: ĝeni

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• genre
• nègre
• règne, régné