retentir

French

Etymology

From re- + Old French tentir, from *tinnitire, from a participle form of Latin tinnire. Compare English tinnitus.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʁə.tɑ̃.tiʁ/
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Audio (France (Lyon)): (file)
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Audio (France (Somain)): (file)
Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

retentir

(intransitive) to ring, to ring out
Synonym: résonner
- 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[1], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères; republished as Eleanor Marx, transl., Madame Bovary, 1886:
  Au-dessus de la porte, où seraient les orgues, se tient un jubé pour les hommes, avec un escalier tournant qui retentit sous les sabots.
  Over the door, where the organ should be, is a loft for the men, with a spiral staircase that reverberates under their wooden shoes.
(intransitive, figurative) to have a strong effect

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of retentir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	retentir
present participle or gerund¹	simple	retentissant /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		retenti /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentit /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentissons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	retentissez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.se/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect	retentissais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissait /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissaient /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/
	past historic²	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentit /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentîmes /ʁə.tɑ̃.tim/	retentîtes /ʁə.tɑ̃.tit/	retentirent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tiʁ/
	future	retentirai /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	retentiras /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	retentira /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	retentirons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/	retentirez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	retentiront /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	retentirais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirait /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	retentiriez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁje/	retentiraient /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.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	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisses /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisses /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentît /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	—	retentissons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	retentissez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.se/	—
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).

Derived terms

Anagrams

retirent, tirèrent, trièrent