retomber

French

Etymology

re- +‎ tomber

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.tɔ̃.be/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

retomber

1. to refall, to fall again, to fall back down

   retomber en enfance ― to regress into second childhood or to bring one back to one's childhood

Conjugation

Conjugation of retomber (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	retomber
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	retombant /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		retombé /ʁə.tɔ̃.be/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	retombe /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombes /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombe /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombons /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɔ̃/	retombez /ʁə.tɔ̃.be/	retombent /ʁə.tɔ̃b/
	imperfect	retombais /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɛ/	retombais /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɛ/	retombait /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɛ/	retombions /ʁə.tɔ̃.bjɔ̃/	retombiez /ʁə.tɔ̃.bje/	retombaient /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɛ/
	past historic2	retombai /ʁə.tɔ̃.be/	retombas /ʁə.tɔ̃.ba/	retomba /ʁə.tɔ̃.ba/	retombâmes /ʁə.tɔ̃.bam/	retombâtes /ʁə.tɔ̃.bat/	retombèrent /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɛʁ/
	future	retomberai /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁe/	retomberas /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁa/	retombera /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁa/	retomberons /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɔ̃/	retomberez /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁe/	retomberont /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɔ̃/
	conditional	retomberais /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	retomberais /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	retomberait /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	retomberions /ʁə.tɔ̃.bə.ʁjɔ̃/	retomberiez /ʁə.tɔ̃.bə.ʁje/	retomberaient /ʁə.tɔ̃.bʁɛ/
(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	retombe /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombes /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombe /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	retombions /ʁə.tɔ̃.bjɔ̃/	retombiez /ʁə.tɔ̃.bje/	retombent /ʁə.tɔ̃b/
	imperfect2	retombasse /ʁə.tɔ̃.bas/	retombasses /ʁə.tɔ̃.bas/	retombât /ʁə.tɔ̃.ba/	retombassions /ʁə.tɔ̃.ba.sjɔ̃/	retombassiez /ʁə.tɔ̃.ba.sje/	retombassent /ʁə.tɔ̃.bas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	retombe /ʁə.tɔ̃b/	—	retombons /ʁə.tɔ̃.bɔ̃/	retombez /ʁə.tɔ̃.be/	—
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

• retomber sur ses pattes

Further reading

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