étreindre

See also: êtreindre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French estreindre, from Latin stringere (“tighten”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *streyg-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.tʁɛ̃dʁ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Canada):

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Verb

étreindre

1. to hug (embrace)
2. to clutch, grip

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like peindre. It uses the same endings as rendre or vendre, but its -nd- becomes -gn- before a vowel, and its past participle ends in 't' instead of a vowel.

Conjugation of étreindre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	étreindre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	étreignant /e.tʁɛ.ɲɑ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		étreint /e.tʁɛ̃/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	étreins /e.tʁɛ̃/	étreins /e.tʁɛ̃/	étreint /e.tʁɛ̃/	étreignons /e.tʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɔ̃/	étreignez /e.tʁɛ.ɲe/ or /e.tʁe.ɲe/	étreignent /e.tʁɛɲ/
	imperfect	étreignais /e.tʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɛ/	étreignais /e.tʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɛ/	étreignait /e.tʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɛ/	étreignions /e.tʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲjɔ̃/	étreigniez /e.tʁɛ.ɲje/ or /e.tʁe.ɲje/	étreignaient /e.tʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɛ/
	past historic2	étreignis /e.tʁɛ.ɲi/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi/	étreignis /e.tʁɛ.ɲi/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi/	étreignit /e.tʁɛ.ɲi/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi/	étreignîmes /e.tʁɛ.ɲim/ or /e.tʁe.ɲim/	étreignîtes /e.tʁɛ.ɲit/ or /e.tʁe.ɲit/	étreignirent /e.tʁɛ.ɲiʁ/ or /e.tʁe.ɲiʁ/
	future	étreindrai /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁe/	étreindras /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁa/	étreindra /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁa/	étreindrons /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/	étreindrez /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁe/	étreindront /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	étreindrais /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/	étreindrais /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/	étreindrait /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/	étreindrions /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	étreindriez /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁi.je/	étreindraient /e.tʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/
(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	étreigne /e.tʁɛɲ/	étreignes /e.tʁɛɲ/	étreigne /e.tʁɛɲ/	étreignions /e.tʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲjɔ̃/	étreigniez /e.tʁɛ.ɲje/ or /e.tʁe.ɲje/	étreignent /e.tʁɛɲ/
	imperfect2	étreignisse /e.tʁɛ.ɲis/ or /e.tʁe.ɲis/	étreignisses /e.tʁɛ.ɲis/ or /e.tʁe.ɲis/	étreignît /e.tʁɛ.ɲi/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi/	étreignissions /e.tʁɛ.ɲi.sjɔ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi.sjɔ̃/	étreignissiez /e.tʁɛ.ɲi.sje/ or /e.tʁe.ɲi.sje/	étreignissent /e.tʁɛ.ɲis/ or /e.tʁe.ɲis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	étreins /e.tʁɛ̃/	—	étreignons /e.tʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /e.tʁe.ɲɔ̃/	étreignez /e.tʁɛ.ɲe/ or /e.tʁe.ɲe/	—
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

• qui trop embrasse mal étreint

Related terms

• étroit

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• reteindre