travailler
French
Etymology
From Middle French travailler, from Old French traveillier (“to suffer”), from Vulgar Latin *tripaliāre, present active infinitive of *tripaliō (“to torture; to toil, labor”), from tripalium (“torture instrument”), from Latin tripālis (“having three stakes”). Compare Franco-Provençal travalyer, Catalan treballar, Portuguese trabalhar, Spanish trabajar, and English travail. Also compare English travel.
Pronunciation
Verb
travailler
- to work
- to study
- to struggle
- "Elle, qui n'était pas grosse comme un œuf / envieuse s'étend, et s'enfle, et se travaille / pour égaler l'animal en grosseur" - Jean De La Fontaine
- It, no larger than an egg, envious, elongated, stretched, and struggled / to equal the animal in size
- "Elle, qui n'était pas grosse comme un œuf / envieuse s'étend, et s'enfle, et se travaille / pour égaler l'animal en grosseur" - Jean De La Fontaine
Conjugation
infinitive | simple | travailler | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | travaillant /tʁa.va.jɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | travaillé /tʁa.va.je/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travailles /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaillons /tʁa.va.jɔ̃/ |
travaillez /tʁa.va.je/ |
travaillent /tʁa.vaj/ |
imperfect | travaillais /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillais /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillait /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillions /tʁa.vaj.jɔ̃/ |
travailliez /tʁa.vaj.je/ |
travaillaient /tʁa.va.jɛ/ | |
past historic2 | travaillai /tʁa.va.je/ |
travaillas /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travailla /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travaillâmes /tʁa.va.jam/ |
travaillâtes /tʁa.va.jat/ |
travaillèrent /tʁa.va.jɛʁ/ | |
future | travaillerai /tʁa.vaj.ʁe/ |
travailleras /tʁa.vaj.ʁa/ |
travaillera /tʁa.vaj.ʁa/ |
travaillerons /tʁa.vaj.ʁɔ̃/ |
travaillerez /tʁa.vaj.ʁe/ |
travailleront /tʁa.vaj.ʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | travaillerais /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerais /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerait /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerions /tʁa.va.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
travailleriez /tʁa.va.jə.ʁje/ |
travailleraient /tʁa.vaj.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 | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travailles /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaillions /tʁa.vaj.jɔ̃/ |
travailliez /tʁa.vaj.je/ |
travaillent /tʁa.vaj/ |
imperfect2 | travaillasse /tʁa.va.jas/ |
travaillasses /tʁa.va.jas/ |
travaillât /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travaillassions /tʁa.va.ja.sjɔ̃/ |
travaillassiez /tʁa.va.ja.sje/ |
travaillassent /tʁa.va.jas/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
— | travaillons /tʁa.va.jɔ̃/ |
travaillez /tʁa.va.je/ |
— | |
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). |
Synonyms
Related terms
Further reading
- “travailler”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old French traveiller.
Verb
travailler
- to suffer (be in a state of suffering)
Conjugation
- Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.
infinitive | simple | travailler | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle1 or gerund2 | simple | travaillant | |||||
compound | present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle | ||||||
past participle | travaillé | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | ie (i’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ilz, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | travaille | travailles | travaille | travaillons | travaillez | travaillent |
imperfect | travaillois, travailloys | travaillois, travailloys | travailloit, travailloyt | travaillions, travaillyons | travailliez, travaillyez | travailloient, travailloyent | |
past historic | travailla | travaillas | travailla | travaillasmes | travaillastes | travaillerent | |
future | travaillerai, travailleray | travailleras | travaillera | travaillerons | travaillerez | travailleront | |
conditional | travaillerois, travailleroys | travaillerois, travailleroys | travailleroit, travailleroyt | travaillerions, travailleryons | travailleriez, travailleryez | travailleroient, travailleroyent | |
(compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
past anterior | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
subjunctive | que ie (i’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ilz, qu’elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | travaille | travailles | travaille | travaillons | travaillez | travaillent |
imperfect | travaillasse | travaillasses | travaillast | travaillassions | travaillassiez | travaillassent | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | travaille | — | travaillons | travaillez | — | |
compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679. | |||||||
2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], op. cit., p. 180). |
Descendants
- French: travailler
Old French
Verb
travailler
- Alternative form of traveillier
Conjugation
This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-aill, *-aills, *-aillt are modified to ail, auz, aut. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from Middle French
- 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 Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French verbs
- French verbs with conjugation -er
- French first group verbs
- Middle French terms inherited from Old French
- Middle French terms derived from Old French
- Middle French lemmas
- Middle French verbs
- Middle French first group verbs
- Old French lemmas
- Old French verbs
- Old French verbs with weak-a preterite
- Old French first group verbs
- Old French verbs ending in -er