siffler

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sifler (later orthographically influenced by souffler), from Vulgar Latin *sīfilāre, probably an Osco-Umbrian influenced variant of Latin sībilāre (compare Spanish chiflar, Friulian sivilâ). Cf. also the variant northern Old French dialectal form sufler (whence Norman sûfflier and Walloon xhufler), from a Vulgar Latin variant *sufilāre (compare Italian zufolare), as well as the dialectal subler from a form *subilāre (compare Italian sobillare, Romansch tschüblar, Romanian șuiera); in areas transitional to Franco-Provençal dialects is found the form sibler (compare also Occitan siblar, siular, Catalan xiular).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.fle/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

siffler

1. (transitive, intransitive) to whistle

   Elle siffle un air bizarre.

   She's whistling a strange tune.

2. (transitive) to whistle for, to blow on a whistle for

   L’arbitre a sifflé la mi-temps.

   The referee blew the whistle for half-time.

3. (transitive) to boo by whistling (to show one's disapproval at something)
4. (intransitive, of snakes) to hiss
5. (transitive) to knock back (a drink), to down

Conjugation

Conjugation of siffler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	siffler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	sifflant /si.flɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		sifflé /si.fle/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	siffle /sifl/	siffles /sifl/	siffle /sifl/	sifflons /si.flɔ̃/	sifflez /si.fle/	sifflent /sifl/
	imperfect	sifflais /si.flɛ/	sifflais /si.flɛ/	sifflait /si.flɛ/	sifflions /si.fli.jɔ̃/	siffliez /si.fli.je/	sifflaient /si.flɛ/
	past historic2	sifflai /si.fle/	sifflas /si.fla/	siffla /si.fla/	sifflâmes /si.flam/	sifflâtes /si.flat/	sifflèrent /si.flɛʁ/
	future	sifflerai /si.flə.ʁe/	siffleras /si.flə.ʁa/	sifflera /si.flə.ʁa/	sifflerons /si.flə.ʁɔ̃/	sifflerez /si.flə.ʁe/	siffleront /si.flə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	sifflerais /si.flə.ʁɛ/	sifflerais /si.flə.ʁɛ/	sifflerait /si.flə.ʁɛ/	sifflerions /si.flə.ʁjɔ̃/	siffleriez /si.flə.ʁje/	siffleraient /si.flə.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	siffle /sifl/	siffles /sifl/	siffle /sifl/	sifflions /si.fli.jɔ̃/	siffliez /si.fli.je/	sifflent /sifl/
	imperfect2	sifflasse /si.flas/	sifflasses /si.flas/	sifflât /si.fla/	sifflassions /si.fla.sjɔ̃/	sifflassiez /si.fla.sje/	sifflassent /si.flas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	siffle /sifl/	—	sifflons /si.flɔ̃/	sifflez /si.fle/	—
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

• avoir les oreilles qui sifflent
• persiffler, persifler
• sifflable
• sifflade
• sifflage
• sifflant
• sifflante
• sifflée
• siffleur
• siffleux

Related terms

• sifflement
• sifflet

Further reading

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