souhaiter

French

Etymology

From Old French sohaidier, from Gallo-Roman Latin *subtus-haitare "promise with little commitment", a hybrid of Latin subtus "under" + Frankish *haitan (“to order, promise”), from Proto-Germanic *haitaną, compare Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (haitan, “to address, call”), Old High German heizzan, Old English hātan (“to call, order”) and Old Norse heita (“to call, name”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɛ.te/, /swe.te/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

souhaiter

1. to wish (for); to hope (for)

   On vous souhaite tout le bonheur du monde

   Pour aujourd'hui comme pour demain

   Que votre soleil éclaircisse l'ombre

   Qu'il brille d'amour au quotidien. - Sinsemilia Tout le bonheur du monde.

   We wish you all the happiness in the world.

   For today like for tomorrow

   That your sun light up the shadows.

   That it shine love everyday.

Conjugation

Conjugation of souhaiter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	souhaiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	souhaitant /swɛ.tɑ̃/ or /swe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		souhaité /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaites /swɛt/	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaitons /swɛ.tɔ̃/ or /swe.tɔ̃/	souhaitez /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/	souhaitent /swɛt/
	imperfect	souhaitais /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitais /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitait /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitions /swɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /swe.tjɔ̃/	souhaitiez /swɛ.tje/ or /swe.tje/	souhaitaient /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/
	past historic2	souhaitai /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/	souhaitas /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaita /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaitâmes /swɛ.tam/ or /swe.tam/	souhaitâtes /swɛ.tat/ or /swe.tat/	souhaitèrent /swɛ.tɛʁ/ or /swe.tɛʁ/
	future	souhaiterai /swɛ.tʁe/	souhaiteras /swɛ.tʁa/	souhaitera /swɛ.tʁa/	souhaiterons /swɛ.tʁɔ̃/	souhaiterez /swɛ.tʁe/	souhaiteront /swɛ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	souhaiterais /swɛ.tʁɛ/	souhaiterais /swɛ.tʁɛ/	souhaiterait /swɛ.tʁɛ/	souhaiterions /swɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	souhaiteriez /swɛ.tə.ʁje/	souhaiteraient /swɛ.tʁɛ/
(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	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaites /swɛt/	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaitions /swɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /swe.tjɔ̃/	souhaitiez /swɛ.tje/ or /swe.tje/	souhaitent /swɛt/
	imperfect2	souhaitasse /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/	souhaitasses /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/	souhaitât /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaitassions /swɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /swe.ta.sjɔ̃/	souhaitassiez /swɛ.ta.sje/ or /swe.ta.sje/	souhaitassent /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	souhaite /swɛt/	—	souhaitons /swɛ.tɔ̃/ or /swe.tɔ̃/	souhaitez /swɛ.te/ or /swe.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 only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• souhait

Further reading

• “souhaiter” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).