aboutir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French aboutir, from Old French aboutir (“to endure stubbornly, persist”), derived from bouter (“to persist”), ultimately of Germanic origin. By surface analysis, a- +‎ bouter. See also bout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bu.tiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

aboutir (intransitive)

1. (literally) to lead to, to end up in, to reach [with à]
2. (figuratively) to lead to, to have the consequence of [with à]
3. to reach a conclusion, to succeed
4. to touch by one end

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 aboutir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	aboutir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	aboutissant /a.bu.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abouti /a.bu.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutit /a.bu.ti/	aboutissons /a.bu.ti.sɔ̃/	aboutissez /a.bu.ti.se/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
	imperfect	aboutissais /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissais /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissait /a.bu.ti.sɛ/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissaient /a.bu.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	aboutit /a.bu.ti/	aboutîmes /a.bu.tim/	aboutîtes /a.bu.tit/	aboutirent /a.bu.tiʁ/
	future	aboutirai /a.bu.ti.ʁe/	aboutiras /a.bu.ti.ʁa/	aboutira /a.bu.ti.ʁa/	aboutirons /a.bu.ti.ʁɔ̃/	aboutirez /a.bu.ti.ʁe/	aboutiront /a.bu.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	aboutirais /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirais /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirait /a.bu.ti.ʁɛ/	aboutirions /a.bu.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	aboutiriez /a.bu.ti.ʁje/	aboutiraient /a.bu.ti.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	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutisses /a.bu.tis/	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
	imperfect2	aboutisse /a.bu.tis/	aboutisses /a.bu.tis/	aboutît /a.bu.ti/	aboutissions /a.bu.ti.sjɔ̃/	aboutissiez /a.bu.ti.sje/	aboutissent /a.bu.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	aboutis /a.bu.ti/	—	aboutissons /a.bu.ti.sɔ̃/	aboutissez /a.bu.ti.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).

Derived terms

• aboutissement
• tenants et aboutissants

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• abrouti
• broutai