naître

See also: naitre

French

Alternative forms

• naitre (1990 spelling reform)

Etymology

From Middle French naistre, from Old French naistre, from Vulgar Latin *nascĕre, from Latin nāscor, nāscī, from earlier gnāscor, from Proto-Italic *gnāskōr, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛtʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

• Audio (CAN):

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• Rhymes: -ɛtʁ

Verb

naître

1. (intransitive) (typically used in the passive voice) to be born

Conjugation

Conjugation of naître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	naître
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	naissant /nɛ.sɑ̃/ or /ne.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		né /ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	nais /nɛ/	nais /nɛ/	naît /nɛ/	naissons /nɛ.sɔ̃/ or /ne.sɔ̃/	naissez /nɛ.se/ or /ne.se/	naissent /nɛs/
	imperfect	naissais /nɛ.sɛ/ or /ne.sɛ/	naissais /nɛ.sɛ/ or /ne.sɛ/	naissait /nɛ.sɛ/ or /ne.sɛ/	naissions /nɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /ne.sjɔ̃/	naissiez /nɛ.sje/ or /ne.sje/	naissaient /nɛ.sɛ/ or /ne.sɛ/
	past historic2	naquis /na.ki/	naquis /na.ki/	naquit /na.ki/	naquîmes /na.kim/	naquîtes /na.kit/	naquirent /na.kiʁ/
	future	naîtrai /nɛ.tʁe/ or /ne.tʁe/	naîtras /nɛ.tʁa/ or /ne.tʁa/	naîtra /nɛ.tʁa/ or /ne.tʁa/	naîtrons /nɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ne.tʁɔ̃/	naîtrez /nɛ.tʁe/ or /ne.tʁe/	naîtront /nɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ne.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	naîtrais /nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ne.tʁɛ/	naîtrais /nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ne.tʁɛ/	naîtrait /nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ne.tʁɛ/	naîtrions /nɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /ne.tʁi.jɔ̃/	naîtriez /nɛ.tʁi.je/ or /ne.tʁi.je/	naîtraient /nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ne.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	naisse /nɛs/	naisses /nɛs/	naisse /nɛs/	naissions /nɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /ne.sjɔ̃/	naissiez /nɛ.sje/ or /ne.sje/	naissent /nɛs/
	imperfect2	naquisse /na.kis/	naquisses /na.kis/	naquît /na.ki/	naquissions /na.ki.sjɔ̃/	naquissiez /na.ki.sje/	naquissent /na.kis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	nais /nɛ/	—	naissons /nɛ.sɔ̃/ or /ne.sɔ̃/	naissez /nɛ.se/ or /ne.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).

Related terms

• naïf
• naissance
• naissant
• natal
• natif
• nation
• nativité
• nature
• né
• Noël

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• arétin, entrai, inerta, raient, renait, renaît, reniât, rentai, riante, tenir à, traine, trainé, traîne, traîné

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French naistre, from Vulgar Latin *nascĕre, from Latin nāscor, nāscī.

Verb

naître

1. (Jersey) to be born

Antonyms

• mouothi (“to die”)