rouler

French

Etymology

From Old French ruele, roele (“small wheel”), from Medieval Latin rotulō, from Latin rotula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁu.le/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

rouler

1. to roll
2. to revolve
3. (colloquial) to go (of events, to proceed)

   Ça roule bien chez mon ami.

   It's going well at my friend's house.

4. (of a vehicle) to work, to function
5. (intransitive) to drive (a vehicle)

   On a roulé à 80 km à l’heure.

   We were driving 80 km an hour.

   Il roule en Rolls

   He drives a Rolls.

   Elle roule dans un véhicule neuf.

   She drives a new vehicle.

6. (colloquial) to dupe, to trick

   se faire rouler ― to be tricked, to be duped

Conjugation

Conjugation of rouler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	rouler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	roulant /ʁu.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		roulé /ʁu.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	roule /ʁul/	roules /ʁul/	roule /ʁul/	roulons /ʁu.lɔ̃/	roulez /ʁu.le/	roulent /ʁul/
	imperfect	roulais /ʁu.lɛ/	roulais /ʁu.lɛ/	roulait /ʁu.lɛ/	roulions /ʁu.ljɔ̃/	rouliez /ʁu.lje/	roulaient /ʁu.lɛ/
	past historic2	roulai /ʁu.le/	roulas /ʁu.la/	roula /ʁu.la/	roulâmes /ʁu.lam/	roulâtes /ʁu.lat/	roulèrent /ʁu.lɛʁ/
	future	roulerai /ʁul.ʁe/	rouleras /ʁul.ʁa/	roulera /ʁul.ʁa/	roulerons /ʁul.ʁɔ̃/	roulerez /ʁul.ʁe/	rouleront /ʁul.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	roulerais /ʁul.ʁɛ/	roulerais /ʁul.ʁɛ/	roulerait /ʁul.ʁɛ/	roulerions /ʁu.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	rouleriez /ʁu.lə.ʁje/	rouleraient /ʁul.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	roule /ʁul/	roules /ʁul/	roule /ʁul/	roulions /ʁu.ljɔ̃/	rouliez /ʁu.lje/	roulent /ʁul/
	imperfect2	roulasse /ʁu.las/	roulasses /ʁu.las/	roulât /ʁu.la/	roulassions /ʁu.la.sjɔ̃/	roulassiez /ʁu.la.sje/	roulassent /ʁu.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	roule /ʁul/	—	roulons /ʁu.lɔ̃/	roulez /ʁu.le/	—
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

• dérouler
• enrouler
• laissez les bons temps rouler
• roulement
• rouleur
• roulure

 

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ourler