adoucir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French adoucir, adolcir, from dolz, douz (“sweet”), from Latin dulcis (“sweet”). By surface analysis, a- +‎ doux +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.du.siʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

adoucir

1. (transitive) (of foods, flavors, scents, etc.) to sweeten

   La sauce est trop salée ; je vais l’adoucir un peu. ― The sauce is too salty; I'll sweeten it a bit.

2. (transitive; figurative) (of any unpleasant thing) to make (more) agreeable, pleasant, mild, delicate, etc.

   adoucir la douleur ― to soften the pain

3. (transitive) (of something physically rough or coarse) to soften, to smooth
4. (transitive) (of water) to soften

   Il existe plusieurs méthodes pour adoucir l’eau. ― Several methods exist for softening water.

5. (transitive; figurative) to soften, to make more delicate; (of colors, as in visual arts like painting) to lighten, to brighten
6. (transitive; figuratively) to appease; to calm; to make less angry or aggressive
7. (pronominal) to become sweeter; to become milder
8. (pronominal; figurative) to become more pleasant or agreeable

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 adoucir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	adoucir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	adoucissant /a.du.si.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		adouci /a.du.si/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	adoucis /a.du.si/	adoucis /a.du.si/	adoucit /a.du.si/	adoucissons /a.du.si.sɔ̃/	adoucissez /a.du.si.se/	adoucissent /a.du.sis/
	imperfect	adoucissais /a.du.si.sɛ/	adoucissais /a.du.si.sɛ/	adoucissait /a.du.si.sɛ/	adoucissions /a.du.si.sjɔ̃/	adoucissiez /a.du.si.sje/	adoucissaient /a.du.si.sɛ/
	past historic2	adoucis /a.du.si/	adoucis /a.du.si/	adoucit /a.du.si/	adoucîmes /a.du.sim/	adoucîtes /a.du.sit/	adoucirent /a.du.siʁ/
	future	adoucirai /a.du.si.ʁe/	adouciras /a.du.si.ʁa/	adoucira /a.du.si.ʁa/	adoucirons /a.du.si.ʁɔ̃/	adoucirez /a.du.si.ʁe/	adouciront /a.du.si.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	adoucirais /a.du.si.ʁɛ/	adoucirais /a.du.si.ʁɛ/	adoucirait /a.du.si.ʁɛ/	adoucirions /a.du.si.ʁjɔ̃/	adouciriez /a.du.si.ʁje/	adouciraient /a.du.si.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	adoucisse /a.du.sis/	adoucisses /a.du.sis/	adoucisse /a.du.sis/	adoucissions /a.du.si.sjɔ̃/	adoucissiez /a.du.si.sje/	adoucissent /a.du.sis/
	imperfect2	adoucisse /a.du.sis/	adoucisses /a.du.sis/	adoucît /a.du.si/	adoucissions /a.du.si.sjɔ̃/	adoucissiez /a.du.si.sje/	adoucissent /a.du.sis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	adoucis /a.du.si/	—	adoucissons /a.du.si.sɔ̃/	adoucissez /a.du.si.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

• adoucissage
• adoucissement
• adoucisseur
• radoucir

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• radouci