ouvrir

French

Etymology

From Middle French ouvrir, from Old French ovrir, obrir, from Vulgar Latin *operīre, alteration of Classical Latin aperīre, present active infinitive of aperiō (“I open”), perhaps under the influence of cooperīre (“to cover”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /u.vʁiʁ/

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• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): [uvæɾ], [ɾuvɾɪɾ]
• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

ouvrir

1. (transitive) to open
2. (transitive) to begin
3. (reflexive, s'ouvrir) to open (become open)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like couvrir and offrir. It is conjugated like a regular -er verb in the present and imperfect indicative, present subjunctive, imperative, and present participle; it is conjugated like a regular -ir verb in the infinitive, future indicative, conditional, past historic, and imperfect subjunctive; and its past participle ouvert is irregular.

  Conjugation of ouvrir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		ouvrir			avoir ouvert
gerund		en ouvrant			en ayant ouvert
present participle		ouvrant /u.vʁɑ̃/
past participle		ouvert /u.vɛʁ/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	ouvre /uvʁ/	ouvres /uvʁ/	ouvre /uvʁ/	ouvrons /u.vʁɔ̃/	ouvrez /u.vʁe/	ouvrent /uvʁ/
	imperfect	ouvrais /u.vʁɛ/	ouvrais /u.vʁɛ/	ouvrait /u.vʁɛ/	ouvrions /u.vʁi.jɔ̃/	ouvriez /u.vʁi.je/	ouvraient /u.vʁɛ/
	past historic1	ouvris /u.vʁi/	ouvris /u.vʁi/	ouvrit /u.vʁi/	ouvrîmes /u.vʁim/	ouvrîtes /u.vʁit/	ouvrirent /u.vʁiʁ/
	future	ouvrirai /u.vʁi.ʁe/	ouvriras /u.vʁi.ʁa/	ouvrira /u.vʁi.ʁa/	ouvrirons /u.vʁi.ʁɔ̃/	ouvrirez /u.vʁi.ʁe/	ouvriront /u.vʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ouvrirais /u.vʁi.ʁɛ/	ouvrirais /u.vʁi.ʁɛ/	ouvrirait /u.vʁi.ʁɛ/	ouvririons /u.vʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	ouvririez /u.vʁi.ʁje/	ouvriraient /u.vʁi.ʁɛ/
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	ouvre /uvʁ/	ouvres /uvʁ/	ouvre /uvʁ/	ouvrions /u.vʁi.jɔ̃/	ouvriez /u.vʁi.je/	ouvrent /uvʁ/
	imperfect1	ouvrisse /u.vʁis/	ouvrisses /u.vʁis/	ouvrît /u.vʁi/	ouvrissions /u.vʁi.sjɔ̃/	ouvrissiez /u.vʁi.sje/	ouvrissent /u.vʁis/
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	ouvre /uvʁ/	—	ouvrons /u.vʁɔ̃/	ouvrez /u.vʁe/	—
1literary tenses

Antonyms

• fermer

Related terms

• ouvert
• ouverture
• ouvrant
• ouvreur
• ouvre-boîte
• ouvre-bouteille

Further reading

• “ouvrir” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Middle French

Verb

ouvrir

1. to open