sabrer

See also: sâbrer

French

Etymology

sabre +‎ -er

Verb

sabrer

1. (transitive) to slash with a sabre

   Les cavaliers sabrèrent les servants de cette batterie.

   The horsemen cut down the gunners of the artillery battery.

   Sabrer à droite et à gauche.

   To slash left and right.

2. (figuratively) to remove large sections from a text while editing it, to axe.

   Sabrer de longues tirades.

   Axe the pointless monologues from the text; they don't really accomplish anything.

3. Open a bottle, usually champagne, with a slice from a sword.

   Ils ont sabré le champagne.

Conjugation

Conjugation of sabrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	sabrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	sabrant /sa.bʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		sabré /sa.bʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	sabre /sabʁ/	sabres /sabʁ/	sabre /sabʁ/	sabrons /sa.bʁɔ̃/	sabrez /sa.bʁe/	sabrent /sabʁ/
	imperfect	sabrais /sa.bʁɛ/	sabrais /sa.bʁɛ/	sabrait /sa.bʁɛ/	sabrions /sa.bʁi.jɔ̃/	sabriez /sa.bʁi.je/	sabraient /sa.bʁɛ/
	past historic2	sabrai /sa.bʁe/	sabras /sa.bʁa/	sabra /sa.bʁa/	sabrâmes /sa.bʁam/	sabrâtes /sa.bʁat/	sabrèrent /sa.bʁɛʁ/
	future	sabrerai /sa.bʁə.ʁe/	sabreras /sa.bʁə.ʁa/	sabrera /sa.bʁə.ʁa/	sabrerons /sa.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/	sabrerez /sa.bʁə.ʁe/	sabreront /sa.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	sabrerais /sa.bʁə.ʁɛ/	sabrerais /sa.bʁə.ʁɛ/	sabrerait /sa.bʁə.ʁɛ/	sabrerions /sa.bʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	sabreriez /sa.bʁə.ʁje/	sabreraient /sa.bʁə.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	sabre /sabʁ/	sabres /sabʁ/	sabre /sabʁ/	sabrions /sa.bʁi.jɔ̃/	sabriez /sa.bʁi.je/	sabrent /sabʁ/
	imperfect2	sabrasse /sa.bʁas/	sabrasses /sa.bʁas/	sabrât /sa.bʁa/	sabrassions /sa.bʁa.sjɔ̃/	sabrassiez /sa.bʁa.sje/	sabrassent /sa.bʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	sabre /sabʁ/	—	sabrons /sa.bʁɔ̃/	sabrez /sa.bʁe/	—
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

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

Anagrams

• arbres, barres, barrés, braser