virer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *virāre, probably from Latin vibrāre (in which case it is a doublet of vibrer) or possibly from an alteration of gȳrō. Compare Italian virare, Spanish virar. Or, possibly from Gaulish *viru (“to deviate, veer off”), itself derived from viros (“round, crooked”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.ʁe/
• Homophones: virai, viré, virée, virées, virés, virez

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

virer

1. (intransitive) to bear, veer (change direction slightly)

   Virer à gauche. ― Bear left.

2. (intransitive) to turn into, become

   La situation va virer au drame. ― The situation is going to turn into a drama.

3. (transitive, banking) to transfer (money, from one account to another)
4. (transitive, colloquial) to get rid of, fire, shitcan

   Tu pourrais te faire virer pour ça. ― You could get yourself fired for that.

Conjugation

Conjugation of virer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	virer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	virant /vi.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		viré /vi.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vire /viʁ/	vires /viʁ/	vire /viʁ/	virons /vi.ʁɔ̃/	virez /vi.ʁe/	virent /viʁ/
	imperfect	virais /vi.ʁɛ/	virais /vi.ʁɛ/	virait /vi.ʁɛ/	virions /vi.ʁjɔ̃/	viriez /vi.ʁje/	viraient /vi.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	virai /vi.ʁe/	viras /vi.ʁa/	vira /vi.ʁa/	virâmes /vi.ʁam/	virâtes /vi.ʁat/	virèrent /vi.ʁɛʁ/
	future	virerai /vi.ʁə.ʁe/	vireras /vi.ʁə.ʁa/	virera /vi.ʁə.ʁa/	virerons /vi.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	virerez /vi.ʁə.ʁe/	vireront /vi.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	virerais /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerais /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerait /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerions /vi.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	vireriez /vi.ʁə.ʁje/	vireraient /vi.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	vire /viʁ/	vires /viʁ/	vire /viʁ/	virions /vi.ʁjɔ̃/	viriez /vi.ʁje/	virent /viʁ/
	imperfect2	virasse /vi.ʁas/	virasses /vi.ʁas/	virât /vi.ʁa/	virassions /vi.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	virassiez /vi.ʁa.sje/	virassent /vi.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vire /viʁ/	—	virons /vi.ʁɔ̃/	virez /vi.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: 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

• virage
• virement
• virer de bord
• virer une brosse

 

Descendants

• → English: veer

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• river