vêtir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French vestir, from Old French vestir, from Latin vestīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛ.tiʁ/, /ve.tiʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

vêtir

1. (transitive, dated) to dress, to clothe

   Synonyms: habiller, fringuer

2. (takes a reflexive pronoun, dated) to dress, get dressed

   Synonym: s’habiller

Conjugation

This is an irregular verb of the third conjugation. Unlike regular -ir verbs, this conjugation does not include the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of vêtir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	vêtir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	vêtant /vɛ.tɑ̃/ or /ve.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		vêtu /vɛ.ty/ or /ve.ty/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vêts /vɛ/	vêts /vɛ/	vêt /vɛ/	vêtons /vɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ve.tɔ̃/	vêtez /vɛ.te/ or /ve.te/	vêtent /vɛt/
	imperfect	vêtais /vɛ.tɛ/ or /ve.tɛ/	vêtais /vɛ.tɛ/ or /ve.tɛ/	vêtait /vɛ.tɛ/ or /ve.tɛ/	vêtions /vɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ve.tjɔ̃/	vêtiez /vɛ.tje/ or /ve.tje/	vêtaient /vɛ.tɛ/ or /ve.tɛ/
	past historic2	vêtis /vɛ.ti/ or /ve.ti/	vêtis /vɛ.ti/ or /ve.ti/	vêtit /vɛ.ti/ or /ve.ti/	vêtîmes /vɛ.tim/ or /ve.tim/	vêtîtes /vɛ.tit/ or /ve.tit/	vêtirent /vɛ.tiʁ/ or /ve.tiʁ/
	future	vêtirai /vɛ.ti.ʁe/ or /ve.ti.ʁe/	vêtiras /vɛ.ti.ʁa/ or /ve.ti.ʁa/	vêtira /vɛ.ti.ʁa/ or /ve.ti.ʁa/	vêtirons /vɛ.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /ve.ti.ʁɔ̃/	vêtirez /vɛ.ti.ʁe/ or /ve.ti.ʁe/	vêtiront /vɛ.ti.ʁɔ̃/ or /ve.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	vêtirais /vɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /ve.ti.ʁɛ/	vêtirais /vɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /ve.ti.ʁɛ/	vêtirait /vɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /ve.ti.ʁɛ/	vêtirions /vɛ.ti.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ve.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	vêtiriez /vɛ.ti.ʁje/ or /ve.ti.ʁje/	vêtiraient /vɛ.ti.ʁɛ/ or /ve.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	vête /vɛt/	vêtes /vɛt/	vête /vɛt/	vêtions /vɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ve.tjɔ̃/	vêtiez /vɛ.tje/ or /ve.tje/	vêtent /vɛt/
	imperfect2	vêtisse /vɛ.tis/ or /ve.tis/	vêtisses /vɛ.tis/ or /ve.tis/	vêtît /vɛ.ti/ or /ve.ti/	vêtissions /vɛ.ti.sjɔ̃/ or /ve.ti.sjɔ̃/	vêtissiez /vɛ.ti.sje/ or /ve.ti.sje/	vêtissent /vɛ.tis/ or /ve.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vêts /vɛ/	—	vêtons /vɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ve.tɔ̃/	vêtez /vɛ.te/ or /ve.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).

Related terms

• dévêtir
• revêtir
• vêtement

 

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• revit, revît, vitre, vitré