chérir

See also: cherir

French

Etymology

From cher +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃe.ʁiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: chérirent

Verb

chérir

1. (transitive) to cherish

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 chérir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	chérir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	chérissant /ʃe.ʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		chéri /ʃe.ʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	chéris /ʃe.ʁi/	chéris /ʃe.ʁi/	chérit /ʃe.ʁi/	chérissons /ʃe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	chérissez /ʃe.ʁi.se/	chérissent /ʃe.ʁis/
	imperfect	chérissais /ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	chérissais /ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	chérissait /ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/	chérissions /ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	chérissiez /ʃe.ʁi.sje/	chérissaient /ʃe.ʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	chéris /ʃe.ʁi/	chéris /ʃe.ʁi/	chérit /ʃe.ʁi/	chérîmes /ʃe.ʁim/	chérîtes /ʃe.ʁit/	chérirent /ʃe.ʁiʁ/
	future	chérirai /ʃe.ʁi.ʁe/	chériras /ʃe.ʁi.ʁa/	chérira /ʃe.ʁi.ʁa/	chérirons /ʃe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/	chérirez /ʃe.ʁi.ʁe/	chériront /ʃe.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	chérirais /ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	chérirais /ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	chérirait /ʃe.ʁi.ʁɛ/	chéririons /ʃe.ʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	chéririez /ʃe.ʁi.ʁje/	chériraient /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	chérisse /ʃe.ʁis/	chérisses /ʃe.ʁis/	chérisse /ʃe.ʁis/	chérissions /ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	chérissiez /ʃe.ʁi.sje/	chérissent /ʃe.ʁis/
	imperfect2	chérisse /ʃe.ʁis/	chérisses /ʃe.ʁis/	chérît /ʃe.ʁi/	chérissions /ʃe.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	chérissiez /ʃe.ʁi.sje/	chérissent /ʃe.ʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	chéris /ʃe.ʁi/	—	chérissons /ʃe.ʁi.sɔ̃/	chérissez /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).

Further reading

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