tordre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French tordre, tortre, from Vulgar Latin *torcĕre, from Latin torquēre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔʁdʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

tordre

1. (transitive) to twist; to bend

   Je me suis tordu la cheville.

   I twisted my ankle.

2. (transitive) to wring
3. (reflexive) to writhe

   se tordre de rire ― to be in stitches

   se tordre de douleur ― to writhe in pain

Conjugation

Conjugation of tordre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tordre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tordant /tɔʁ.dɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tordu /tɔʁ.dy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tords /tɔʁ/	tords /tɔʁ/	tord /tɔʁ/	tordons /tɔʁ.dɔ̃/	tordez /tɔʁ.de/	tordent /tɔʁd/
	imperfect	tordais /tɔʁ.dɛ/	tordais /tɔʁ.dɛ/	tordait /tɔʁ.dɛ/	tordions /tɔʁ.djɔ̃/	tordiez /tɔʁ.dje/	tordaient /tɔʁ.dɛ/
	past historic2	tordis /tɔʁ.di/	tordis /tɔʁ.di/	tordit /tɔʁ.di/	tordîmes /tɔʁ.dim/	tordîtes /tɔʁ.dit/	tordirent /tɔʁ.diʁ/
	future	tordrai /tɔʁ.dʁe/	tordras /tɔʁ.dʁa/	tordra /tɔʁ.dʁa/	tordrons /tɔʁ.dʁɔ̃/	tordrez /tɔʁ.dʁe/	tordront /tɔʁ.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tordrais /tɔʁ.dʁɛ/	tordrais /tɔʁ.dʁɛ/	tordrait /tɔʁ.dʁɛ/	tordrions /tɔʁ.dʁi.jɔ̃/	tordriez /tɔʁ.dʁi.je/	tordraient /tɔʁ.dʁɛ/
(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	torde /tɔʁd/	tordes /tɔʁd/	torde /tɔʁd/	tordions /tɔʁ.djɔ̃/	tordiez /tɔʁ.dje/	tordent /tɔʁd/
	imperfect2	tordisse /tɔʁ.dis/	tordisses /tɔʁ.dis/	tordît /tɔʁ.di/	tordissions /tɔʁ.di.sjɔ̃/	tordissiez /tɔʁ.di.sje/	tordissent /tɔʁ.dis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tords /tɔʁ/	—	tordons /tɔʁ.dɔ̃/	tordez /tɔʁ.de/	—
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).

Derived terms

• tord-boyaux
• tordre le cou
• tordre le nez

 

Related terms

• contorsion
• distordre
• entorse
• extorquer
• rétorquer
• retors
• torche
• torcol
• tordu
• tors
• torsion
• tort
• torticolis
• tortilla
• tortiller
• tortionnaire
• tortu
• tortueux
• torture
• (possibly) torve
• tourment
• tourte
• treuil
• trousser

 

Descendants

• → Dutch: torderen

Further reading

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