ondoyer

French

Etymology

From Old French, equivalent to onde +‎ -oyer, possibly corresponding to a Vulgar Latin *undizo, *undizare, from Latin unda. Compare Occitan ondejar, Catalan onejar, Italian ondeggiare, Portuguese and Spanish ondear, Romanian undeza.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ̃.dwa.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

ondoyer

1. to sway, undulate

Conjugation

This verb is part of a large group of -er verbs that conjugate like noyer or ennuyer. These verbs always replace the 'y' with an 'i' before a silent 'e'.

Conjugation of ondoyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ondoyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ondoyant /ɔ̃.dwa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ondoyé /ɔ̃.dwa.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ondoie /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoies /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoie /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoyons /ɔ̃.dwa.jɔ̃/	ondoyez /ɔ̃.dwa.je/	ondoient /ɔ̃.dwa/
	imperfect	ondoyais /ɔ̃.dwa.jɛ/	ondoyais /ɔ̃.dwa.jɛ/	ondoyait /ɔ̃.dwa.jɛ/	ondoyions /ɔ̃.dwaj.jɔ̃/	ondoyiez /ɔ̃.dwaj.je/	ondoyaient /ɔ̃.dwa.jɛ/
	past historic2	ondoyai /ɔ̃.dwa.je/	ondoyas /ɔ̃.dwa.ja/	ondoya /ɔ̃.dwa.ja/	ondoyâmes /ɔ̃.dwa.jam/	ondoyâtes /ɔ̃.dwa.jat/	ondoyèrent /ɔ̃.dwa.jɛʁ/
	future	ondoierai /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁe/	ondoieras /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁa/	ondoiera /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁa/	ondoierons /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁɔ̃/	ondoierez /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁe/	ondoieront /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ondoierais /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁɛ/	ondoierais /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁɛ/	ondoierait /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁɛ/	ondoierions /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁjɔ̃/	ondoieriez /ɔ̃.dwa.ʁje/	ondoieraient /ɔ̃.dwa.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	ondoie /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoies /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoie /ɔ̃.dwa/	ondoyions /ɔ̃.dwaj.jɔ̃/	ondoyiez /ɔ̃.dwaj.je/	ondoient /ɔ̃.dwa/
	imperfect2	ondoyasse /ɔ̃.dwa.jas/	ondoyasses /ɔ̃.dwa.jas/	ondoyât /ɔ̃.dwa.ja/	ondoyassions /ɔ̃.dwa.ja.sjɔ̃/	ondoyassiez /ɔ̃.dwa.ja.sje/	ondoyassent /ɔ̃.dwa.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ondoie /ɔ̃.dwa/	—	ondoyons /ɔ̃.dwa.jɔ̃/	ondoyez /ɔ̃.dwa.je/	—
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

• ondoiement

Further reading

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