serrer
French
Etymology
From Old French serrer, from Vulgar Latin serrāre (“close, shut”), from Late Latin serāre, present active infinitive of serō (“fasten, bolt”), from Latin sera (“bolt, crossbar”).
Pronunciation
Verb
serrer
- to tighten (a screw, a knot)
- Doucement ! Ça ne sert à rien de trop serrer cette vis. ― Gently! It's no use to tighten this screw too much.
- Ton nœud de cravate n’est pas assez serré. ― Your tie's knot isn't tightened enough.
- to shake (hands)
- J’ai refusé de lui serrer la main. ― I refused to shake his/her hand.
- to squeeze
- Il lui serra la bras si fort qu’elle en garda une trace pendant trois jours. ― He squeezed her arm so hard that she had a mark of it for three days.
- (reflexive) to squeeze
- Ils se sont serrés pour lui faire une place. ― They squeezed together to make room for him.
- (takes a reflexive pronoun) to shake (hands)
- Les jeunes hommes d’affaires se sont serré la main. ― The young businessmen shook each other's hands.
- (slang) to seduce; to flirt with
Conjugation
Conjugation of serrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive | simple | serrer | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | serrant /sɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /se.ʁɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | serré /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | serre /sɛʁ/ |
serres /sɛʁ/ |
serre /sɛʁ/ |
serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/ |
serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ |
serrent /sɛʁ/ |
imperfect | serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ |
serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ |
serrait /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ |
serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/ |
serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/ |
serraient /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ | |
past historic2 | serrai /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ |
serras /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ |
serra /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ |
serrâmes /sɛ.ʁam/ or /se.ʁam/ |
serrâtes /sɛ.ʁat/ or /se.ʁat/ |
serrèrent /sɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /se.ʁɛʁ/ | |
future | serrerai /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/ |
serreras /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/ |
serrera /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/ |
serrerons /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ |
serrerez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/ |
serreront /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
serrerait /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
serrerions /sɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
serreriez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /se.ʁə.ʁje/ |
serreraient /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.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 | serre /sɛʁ/ |
serres /sɛʁ/ |
serre /sɛʁ/ |
serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/ |
serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/ |
serrent /sɛʁ/ |
imperfect2 | serrasse /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ |
serrasses /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ |
serrât /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ |
serrassions /sɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ |
serrassiez /sɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /se.ʁa.sje/ |
serrassent /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | serre /sɛʁ/ |
— | serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/ |
serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ |
— | |
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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
Related terms
- desserrer
- resserrer
- serrage
- serre-joint
- serre-livres
- serre-nœud
- serrement
- serre-tête
- serrer la main
- serrer la vis
- serrer les dents
- se serrer la ceinture
- se serrer les coudes
Further reading
- “serrer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Verb
(deprecated template usage) serrer
Categories:
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- French terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- French terms inherited from Late Latin
- French terms derived from Late Latin
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
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- French reflexive verbs
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