médire

See also: mediré

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French mesdire, corresponding to mé- +‎ dire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.diʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

médire

1. (archaic or literary) to slander, to speak badly of

Conjugation

This verb is one of a group of -re verbs all ending in -dire. They are conjugated exactly like dire, but with a different second-person plural indicative present (that is, like confire). Members of this group include contredire and interdire.

Conjugation of médire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	médire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	médisant /me.di.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		médit /me.di/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	médis /me.di/	médis /me.di/	médit /me.di/	médisons /me.di.zɔ̃/	médisez /me.di.ze/	médisent /me.diz/
	imperfect	médisais /me.di.zɛ/	médisais /me.di.zɛ/	médisait /me.di.zɛ/	médisions /me.di.zjɔ̃/	médisiez /me.di.zje/	médisaient /me.di.zɛ/
	past historic2	médis /me.di/	médis /me.di/	médit /me.di/	médîmes /me.dim/	médîtes /me.dit/	médirent /me.diʁ/
	future	médirai /me.di.ʁe/	médiras /me.di.ʁa/	médira /me.di.ʁa/	médirons /me.di.ʁɔ̃/	médirez /me.di.ʁe/	médiront /me.di.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	médirais /me.di.ʁɛ/	médirais /me.di.ʁɛ/	médirait /me.di.ʁɛ/	médirions /me.di.ʁjɔ̃/	médiriez /me.di.ʁje/	médiraient /me.di.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	médise /me.diz/	médises /me.diz/	médise /me.diz/	médisions /me.di.zjɔ̃/	médisiez /me.di.zje/	médisent /me.diz/
	imperfect2	médisse /me.dis/	médisses /me.dis/	médît /me.di/	médissions /me.di.sjɔ̃/	médissiez /me.di.sje/	médissent /me.dis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	médis /me.di/	—	médisons /me.di.zɔ̃/	médisez /me.di.ze/	—
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

• médisant
• médisance

Further reading

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