surenchérir

French

Etymology

sur- +‎ enchérir

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁiʁ/

Verb

surenchérir

1. (intransitive) to place a higher bid

   Quelqu'un a surenchéri sur cette vente aux enchères. — Someone's placed a higher bid on this auction.

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of surenchérir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	surenchérir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	surenchérissant /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		surenchéri /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	surenchéris /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchéris /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchérit /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchérissons /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	surenchérissez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.se/	surenchérissent /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/
	imperfect	surenchérissais /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	surenchérissais /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	surenchérissait /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	surenchérissions /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	surenchérissiez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sje/	surenchérissaient /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	surenchéris /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchéris /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchérit /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchérîmes /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁim/	surenchérîtes /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁit/	surenchérirent /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁiʁ/
	future	surenchérirai /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁe/	surenchériras /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁa/	surenchérira /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁa/	surenchérirons /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/	surenchérirez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁe/	surenchériront /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	surenchérirais /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	surenchérirais /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	surenchérirait /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	surenchéririons /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	surenchéririez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.ʁje/	surenchériraient /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.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	surenchérisse /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/	surenchérisses /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/	surenchérisse /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/	surenchérissions /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	surenchérissiez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sje/	surenchérissent /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/
	imperfect2	surenchérisse /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/	surenchérisses /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/	surenchérît /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	surenchérissions /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	surenchérissiez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sje/	surenchérissent /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	surenchéris /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi/	—	surenchérissons /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	surenchérissez /sy.ʁɑ̃.ʃe.ʁi.se/	—
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

• surenchère

Further reading

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