inquiéter

See also: inquieter

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin inquieto, inquietare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.kje.te/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

inquiéter

1. (transitive) to worry

   Cette nouvelle m’inquiète. ― This news worries me.

2. (reflexive) to be worried, to worry

   Ne t’inquiète pas! ― Don't worry! (informal)

   Synonym: s’en faire

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written inquiéter-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written inquièter-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of inquiéter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	inquiéter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	inquiétant /ɛ̃.kje.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		inquiété /ɛ̃.kje.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	inquiète /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiètes /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiète /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiétons /ɛ̃.kje.tɔ̃/	inquiétez /ɛ̃.kje.te/	inquiètent /ɛ̃.kjɛt/
	imperfect	inquiétais /ɛ̃.kje.tɛ/	inquiétais /ɛ̃.kje.tɛ/	inquiétait /ɛ̃.kje.tɛ/	inquiétions /ɛ̃.kje.tjɔ̃/	inquiétiez /ɛ̃.kje.tje/	inquiétaient /ɛ̃.kje.tɛ/
	past historic2	inquiétai /ɛ̃.kje.te/	inquiétas /ɛ̃.kje.ta/	inquiéta /ɛ̃.kje.ta/	inquiétâmes /ɛ̃.kje.tam/	inquiétâtes /ɛ̃.kje.tat/	inquiétèrent /ɛ̃.kje.tɛʁ/
	future	inquièterai or inquiéterai /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁe/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁe/	inquièteras or inquiéteras /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁa/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁa/	inquiètera or inquiétera /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁa/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁa/	inquièterons or inquiéterons /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɔ̃/	inquièterez or inquiéterez /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁe/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁe/	inquièteront or inquiéteront /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	inquièterais or inquiéterais /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɛ/	inquièterais or inquiéterais /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɛ/	inquièterait or inquiéterait /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɛ/	inquièterions or inquiéterions /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	inquièteriez or inquiéteriez /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tə.ʁje/	inquièteraient or inquiéteraient /ɛ̃.kjɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kje.tʁɛ/
(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	inquiète /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiètes /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiète /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	inquiétions /ɛ̃.kje.tjɔ̃/	inquiétiez /ɛ̃.kje.tje/	inquiètent /ɛ̃.kjɛt/
	imperfect2	inquiétasse /ɛ̃.kje.tas/	inquiétasses /ɛ̃.kje.tas/	inquiétât /ɛ̃.kje.ta/	inquiétassions /ɛ̃.kje.ta.sjɔ̃/	inquiétassiez /ɛ̃.kje.ta.sje/	inquiétassent /ɛ̃.kje.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	inquiète /ɛ̃.kjɛt/	—	inquiétons /ɛ̃.kje.tɔ̃/	inquiétez /ɛ̃.kje.te/	—
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

• inquiet
• inquiétude

Further reading

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