pardonner

French

Etymology

From Old French pardoner, from Vulgar Latin *perdonō (compare Italian perdonare, Spanish perdonar, Portuguese perdoar), from Latin per- + donō, a calque of a Germanic word represented by Frankish *firgeban (“to forgive, give up completely”), from fir- + geban. Akin to Old High German fargeban, firgeban (“to forgive”), Old English forġiefan (“to forgive”). More at forgive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paʁ.dɔ.ne/

• audio:

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Verb

pardonner

1. to pardon, forgive
2. (transitive) to excuse

Usage notes

• The usual constructions are pardonner quelque chose à quelqu'un, or pardonner à quelqu'un; when a speaker says Je te pardonne, te is an indirect object (equivalent to à + toi). pardonner quelqu'un is archaic, but has given rise to the passive voice usage, Vous êtes pardonnés, which is still common.

Related terms

• pardon

Conjugation

Conjugation of pardonner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pardonner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pardonnant /paʁ.dɔ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pardonné /paʁ.dɔ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pardonne /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonnes /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonne /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonnons /paʁ.dɔ.nɔ̃/	pardonnez /paʁ.dɔ.ne/	pardonnent /paʁ.dɔn/
	imperfect	pardonnais /paʁ.dɔ.nɛ/	pardonnais /paʁ.dɔ.nɛ/	pardonnait /paʁ.dɔ.nɛ/	pardonnions /paʁ.dɔ.njɔ̃/	pardonniez /paʁ.dɔ.nje/	pardonnaient /paʁ.dɔ.nɛ/
	past historic2	pardonnai /paʁ.dɔ.ne/	pardonnas /paʁ.dɔ.na/	pardonna /paʁ.dɔ.na/	pardonnâmes /paʁ.dɔ.nam/	pardonnâtes /paʁ.dɔ.nat/	pardonnèrent /paʁ.dɔ.nɛʁ/
	future	pardonnerai /paʁ.dɔn.ʁe/	pardonneras /paʁ.dɔn.ʁa/	pardonnera /paʁ.dɔn.ʁa/	pardonnerons /paʁ.dɔn.ʁɔ̃/	pardonnerez /paʁ.dɔn.ʁe/	pardonneront /paʁ.dɔn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pardonnerais /paʁ.dɔn.ʁɛ/	pardonnerais /paʁ.dɔn.ʁɛ/	pardonnerait /paʁ.dɔn.ʁɛ/	pardonnerions /paʁ.dɔ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	pardonneriez /paʁ.dɔ.nə.ʁje/	pardonneraient /paʁ.dɔn.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	pardonne /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonnes /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonne /paʁ.dɔn/	pardonnions /paʁ.dɔ.njɔ̃/	pardonniez /paʁ.dɔ.nje/	pardonnent /paʁ.dɔn/
	imperfect2	pardonnasse /paʁ.dɔ.nas/	pardonnasses /paʁ.dɔ.nas/	pardonnât /paʁ.dɔ.na/	pardonnassions /paʁ.dɔ.na.sjɔ̃/	pardonnassiez /paʁ.dɔ.na.sje/	pardonnassent /paʁ.dɔ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pardonne /paʁ.dɔn/	—	pardonnons /paʁ.dɔ.nɔ̃/	pardonnez /paʁ.dɔ.ne/	—
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).

Further reading

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