permettre

French

Etymology

From Middle French permettre, borrowed from Latin permittō, permittere, based on French mettre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.mɛtʁ/

• Audio (France, Paris):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʁ

Verb

permettre

1. to permit, to allow

   Vous me permettrez de le faire ?

   Will you allow me to do that?

2. (reflexive) to take the liberty of doing something

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like mettre. That means it is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is permis, not *permettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with permi-, not *permetti-.

Conjugation of permettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	permettre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	permettant /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		permis /pɛʁ.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	permets /pɛʁ.mɛ/	permets /pɛʁ.mɛ/	permet /pɛʁ.mɛ/	permettons /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɔ̃/	permettez /pɛʁ.mɛ.te/ or /pɛʁ.me.te/	permettent /pɛʁ.mɛt/
	imperfect	permettais /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɛ/	permettais /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɛ/	permettait /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɛ/	permettions /pɛʁ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tjɔ̃/	permettiez /pɛʁ.mɛ.tje/ or /pɛʁ.me.tje/	permettaient /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɛ/
	past historic2	permis /pɛʁ.mi/	permis /pɛʁ.mi/	permit /pɛʁ.mi/	permîmes /pɛʁ.mim/	permîtes /pɛʁ.mit/	permirent /pɛʁ.miʁ/
	future	permettrai /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁe/	permettras /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁa/	permettra /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁa/	permettrons /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁɔ̃/	permettrez /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁe/	permettront /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	permettrais /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁɛ/	permettrais /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁɛ/	permettrait /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁɛ/	permettrions /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁi.jɔ̃/	permettriez /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁi.je/ or /pɛʁ.me.tʁi.je/	permettraient /pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.me.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	permette /pɛʁ.mɛt/	permettes /pɛʁ.mɛt/	permette /pɛʁ.mɛt/	permettions /pɛʁ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tjɔ̃/	permettiez /pɛʁ.mɛ.tje/ or /pɛʁ.me.tje/	permettent /pɛʁ.mɛt/
	imperfect2	permisse /pɛʁ.mis/	permisses /pɛʁ.mis/	permît /pɛʁ.mi/	permissions /pɛʁ.mi.sjɔ̃/	permissiez /pɛʁ.mi.sje/	permissent /pɛʁ.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	permets /pɛʁ.mɛ/	—	permettons /pɛʁ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.me.tɔ̃/	permettez /pɛʁ.mɛ.te/ or /pɛʁ.me.te/	—
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

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

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Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin permittō, permittere.

Verb

permettre

1. to permit, to allow

Descendants

• French: permettre