guérir

See also: guerir

French

Alternative forms

• garir (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French guérir, guerir, garir, from Old French garir, guarir (“to guarantee, protect, give health to”), from Frankish *warjan (“to defend, protect”), from Proto-Germanic *warjaną (“to defend, guard”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover, defend, guard, heed”). Cognate with Old High German werien (“to defend, protect”), Old English werian (“to guard, keep, defend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡe.ʁiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

guérir

1. (transitive) to cure, to heal

   Le médecin va le guérir. ― The doctor is going to heal it.

   • 1898, Revue du monde invisible, page 339:

     Notre imagination, si ardente qu’on la suppose, ne peut ni guérir instantanément une lésion organique, ni ressusciter un mort.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (transitive, figurative) to cure, to heal
   • 2018, Zaz, Qué vendrá:

     Puisque nous sommes ici sans savoir ce qui nous attend un peu plus tard, laisser parler mon instinct me guérit.

     Since we're here without knowing what awaits us a little bit later, letting my instinct[s] speak heals me.

3. (intransitive or pronominal, with passive sense) to recover, to heal

   Il se guérira peu à peu. ― It will heal little by little.

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of guérir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	guérir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	guérissant /ɡe.ʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		guéri /ɡe.ʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	guéris /ɡe.ʁi/	guéris /ɡe.ʁi/	guérit /ɡe.ʁi/	guérissons /ɡe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	guérissez /ɡe.ʁi.se/	guérissent /ɡe.ʁis/
	imperfect	guérissais /ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	guérissais /ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	guérissait /ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	guérissions /ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	guérissiez /ɡe.ʁi.sje/	guérissaient /ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	guéris /ɡe.ʁi/	guéris /ɡe.ʁi/	guérit /ɡe.ʁi/	guérîmes /ɡe.ʁim/	guérîtes /ɡe.ʁit/	guérirent /ɡe.ʁiʁ/
	future	guérirai /ɡe.ʁi.ʁe/	guériras /ɡe.ʁi.ʁa/	guérira /ɡe.ʁi.ʁa/	guérirons /ɡe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/	guérirez /ɡe.ʁi.ʁe/	guériront /ɡe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	guérirais /ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	guérirais /ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	guérirait /ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	guéririons /ɡe.ʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	guéririez /ɡe.ʁi.ʁje/	guériraient /ɡe.ʁi.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	guérisse /ɡe.ʁis/	guérisses /ɡe.ʁis/	guérisse /ɡe.ʁis/	guérissions /ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	guérissiez /ɡe.ʁi.sje/	guérissent /ɡe.ʁis/
	imperfect2	guérisse /ɡe.ʁis/	guérisses /ɡe.ʁis/	guérît /ɡe.ʁi/	guérissions /ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	guérissiez /ɡe.ʁi.sje/	guérissent /ɡe.ʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	guéris /ɡe.ʁi/	—	guérissons /ɡe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	guérissez /ɡe.ʁi.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).

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of se guérir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	se guérir
	compound	s'être + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	se guérissant /sə ɡe.ʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant or étant + past participle
past participle		guéri /ɡe.ʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	me guéris /mə ɡe.ʁi/	te guéris /tə ɡe.ʁi/	se guérit /sə ɡe.ʁi/	nous guérissons /nu ɡe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	vous guérissez /vu ɡe.ʁi.se/	se guérissent /sə ɡe.ʁis/
	imperfect	me guérissais /mə ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	te guérissais /tə ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	se guérissait /sə ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/	nous guérissions /nu ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	vous guérissiez /vu ɡe.ʁi.sje/	se guérissaient /sə ɡe.ʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	me guéris /mə ɡe.ʁi/	te guéris /tə ɡe.ʁi/	se guérit /sə ɡe.ʁi/	nous guérîmes /nu ɡe.ʁim/	vous guérîtes /vu ɡe.ʁit/	se guérirent /sə ɡe.ʁiʁ/
	future	me guérirai /mə ɡe.ʁi.ʁe/	te guériras /tə ɡe.ʁi.ʁa/	se guérira /sə ɡe.ʁi.ʁa/	nous guérirons /nu ɡe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/	vous guérirez /vu ɡe.ʁi.ʁe/	se guériront /sə ɡe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	me guérirais /mə ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	te guérirais /tə ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	se guérirait /sə ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	nous guéririons /nu ɡe.ʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	vous guéririez /vu ɡe.ʁi.ʁje/	se guériraient /sə ɡe.ʁi.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of s'être + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of s'être + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of s'être + past participle
	future perfect	future of s'être + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of s'être + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	me guérisse /mə ɡe.ʁis/	te guérisses /tə ɡe.ʁis/	se guérisse /sə ɡe.ʁis/	nous guérissions /nu ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	vous guérissiez /vu ɡe.ʁi.sje/	se guérissent /sə ɡe.ʁis/
	imperfect2	me guérisse /mə ɡe.ʁis/	te guérisses /tə ɡe.ʁis/	se guérît /sə ɡe.ʁi/	nous guérissions /nu ɡe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	vous guérissiez /vu ɡe.ʁi.sje/	se guérissent /sə ɡe.ʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of s'être + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of s'être + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	guéris-toi /ɡe.ʁi.twa/	—	guérissons-nous /ɡe.ʁi.sɔ̃.nu/	guérissez-vous /ɡe.ʁi.se.vu/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of s'être + past participle	—	simple imperative of s'être + past participle	simple imperative of s'être + 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

• mieux vaut prévenir que guérir

Related terms

• guérison
• guérissable
  • inguérissable
• guérisseur

Further reading

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