paître

See also: paitre

French

Alternative forms

• paitre

Etymology

From Old French paistre, from Latin pāscere, present active infinitive of pāscō, from Proto-Italic *pāskō, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛtʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

paître (defective)

1. (intransitive) to graze

Conjugation

This verb is not conjugated in certain tenses.

Conjugation of paître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

present participle		paissant /pɛ.sɑ̃/
past participle		pu /py/
infinitive
simple		paître
compound		avoir + past participle
gerund1
simple		paissant /pɛ.sɑ̃/
compound		ayant + past participle
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pais /pɛ/	pais /pɛ/	paît /pɛ/	paissons /pɛ.sɔ̃/	paissez /pɛ.se/	paissent /pɛs/
	imperfect	paissais /pɛ.sɛ/	paissais /pɛ.sɛ/	paissait /pɛ.sɛ/	paissions /pɛ.sjɔ̃/	paissiez /pɛ.sje/	paissaient /pɛ.sɛ/
	past historic2	pus /py/	pus /py/	put /py/	pûmes /pym/	pûtes /pyt/	purent /pyʁ/
	future	paîtrai /pɛ.tʁe/	paîtras /pɛ.tʁa/	paîtra /pɛ.tʁa/	paîtrons /pɛ.tʁɔ̃/	paîtrez /pɛ.tʁe/	paîtront /pɛ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	paîtrais /pɛ.tʁɛ/	paîtrais /pɛ.tʁɛ/	paîtrait /pɛ.tʁɛ/	paîtrions /pɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/	paîtriez /pɛ.tʁi.je/	paîtraient /pɛ.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	paisse /pɛs/	paisses /pɛs/	paisse /pɛs/	paissions /pɛ.sjɔ̃/	paissiez /pɛ.sje/	paissent /pɛs/
	imperfect2	pusse /pys/	pusses /pys/	pût /py/	pussions /py.sjɔ̃/	pussiez /py.sje/	pussent /pys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pais /pɛ/	—	paissons /pɛ.sɔ̃/	paissez /pɛ.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 Only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• appâter
• empêtrer
• pâtre
• pâture
• paisson
• pasteur
• pu
• repaître

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• parité, partie, patrie, pirate, piraté, prêtai, repait, repaît

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French paistre (“to graze”), from Latin pāscō, pāscere (“feed, nourish, maintain, support; pasture, drive to pasture, attend; feed, supply, cultivate, let grow; graze, browse”).

Verb

paître

1. (Jersey) to graze

Derived terms

• env'yer tchitch'un à paître (“to send someone packing”)
• laîssi paître ès coucous (“to leave fallow”)