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)

		simple			compound
infinitive		paître			avoir pu
gerund		en paissant			en ayant pu
present participle		paissant /pɛ.sɑ̃/
past participle		pu /py/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
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 historic1	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	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	paisse /pɛs/	paisses /pɛs/	paisse /pɛs/	paissions /pɛ.sjɔ̃/	paissiez /pɛ.sje/	paissent /pɛs/
	imperfect1	pusse /pys/	pusses /pys/	pût /py/	pussions /py.sjɔ̃/	pussiez /py.sje/	pussent /pys/
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	–
		—	pais /pɛ/	—	paissons /pɛ.sɔ̃/	paissez /pɛ.se/	—
1literary tenses

Related terms

• pâture
• paisson
• pu
• repaître

Anagrams

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

Further reading

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

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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”)