écourter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French escurter, from Late Latin excurtāre, from Latin curtāre. By surface analysis, é- +‎ court +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.kuʁ.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

écourter

1. to shorten, curtail (make shorter e.g. by cutting)
2. (reflexive) to shorten (become shorter)
3. to dock, clip (cut the tail of e.g. a dog)
4. to cut short, curtail (shorten the time of something)
5. to cut short, cut

Conjugation

Conjugation of écourter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	écourter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	écourtant /e.kuʁ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		écourté /e.kuʁ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtes /e.kuʁt/	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtons /e.kuʁ.tɔ̃/	écourtez /e.kuʁ.te/	écourtent /e.kuʁt/
	imperfect	écourtais /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtais /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtait /e.kuʁ.tɛ/	écourtions /e.kuʁ.tjɔ̃/	écourtiez /e.kuʁ.tje/	écourtaient /e.kuʁ.tɛ/
	past historic2	écourtai /e.kuʁ.te/	écourtas /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourta /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourtâmes /e.kuʁ.tam/	écourtâtes /e.kuʁ.tat/	écourtèrent /e.kuʁ.tɛʁ/
	future	écourterai /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁe/	écourteras /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁa/	écourtera /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁa/	écourterons /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/	écourterez /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁe/	écourteront /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	écourterais /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterais /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterait /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	écourterions /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	écourteriez /e.kuʁ.tə.ʁje/	écourteraient /e.kuʁ.tə.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	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtes /e.kuʁt/	écourte /e.kuʁt/	écourtions /e.kuʁ.tjɔ̃/	écourtiez /e.kuʁ.tje/	écourtent /e.kuʁt/
	imperfect2	écourtasse /e.kuʁ.tas/	écourtasses /e.kuʁ.tas/	écourtât /e.kuʁ.ta/	écourtassions /e.kuʁ.ta.sjɔ̃/	écourtassiez /e.kuʁ.ta.sje/	écourtassent /e.kuʁ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	écourte /e.kuʁt/	—	écourtons /e.kuʁ.tɔ̃/	écourtez /e.kuʁ.te/	—
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).

Related terms

• écourtement
• écourticher

Further reading

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