assouvir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *assōpīre (“satisfy”), from Latin sōpīre (“to sleep”) (influenced by Old French assevir (“attain”)). Doublet of assoupir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.su.viʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

assouvir

1. (transitive) to satisfy, assuage (hunger, passion, etc.)
   • 2019 September 11, “Cinéma : avec « Deux moi », Cédric Klapisch dresse le portrait des trentenaires d’aujourd’hui”, in Le Monde‎^[1]:

     Dix-sept ans après la sociabilité frénétique de L’Auberge espagnole (2002) où la soif de rencontres se trouvait vite assouvie et même débordée, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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 assouvir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	assouvir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	assouvissant /a.su.vi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		assouvi /a.su.vi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	assouvis /a.su.vi/	assouvis /a.su.vi/	assouvit /a.su.vi/	assouvissons /a.su.vi.sɔ̃/	assouvissez /a.su.vi.se/	assouvissent /a.su.vis/
	imperfect	assouvissais /a.su.vi.sɛ/	assouvissais /a.su.vi.sɛ/	assouvissait /a.su.vi.sɛ/	assouvissions /a.su.vi.sjɔ̃/	assouvissiez /a.su.vi.sje/	assouvissaient /a.su.vi.sɛ/
	past historic2	assouvis /a.su.vi/	assouvis /a.su.vi/	assouvit /a.su.vi/	assouvîmes /a.su.vim/	assouvîtes /a.su.vit/	assouvirent /a.su.viʁ/
	future	assouvirai /a.su.vi.ʁe/	assouviras /a.su.vi.ʁa/	assouvira /a.su.vi.ʁa/	assouvirons /a.su.vi.ʁɔ̃/	assouvirez /a.su.vi.ʁe/	assouviront /a.su.vi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	assouvirais /a.su.vi.ʁɛ/	assouvirais /a.su.vi.ʁɛ/	assouvirait /a.su.vi.ʁɛ/	assouvirions /a.su.vi.ʁjɔ̃/	assouviriez /a.su.vi.ʁje/	assouviraient /a.su.vi.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	assouvisse /a.su.vis/	assouvisses /a.su.vis/	assouvisse /a.su.vis/	assouvissions /a.su.vi.sjɔ̃/	assouvissiez /a.su.vi.sje/	assouvissent /a.su.vis/
	imperfect2	assouvisse /a.su.vis/	assouvisses /a.su.vis/	assouvît /a.su.vi/	assouvissions /a.su.vi.sjɔ̃/	assouvissiez /a.su.vi.sje/	assouvissent /a.su.vis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	assouvis /a.su.vi/	—	assouvissons /a.su.vi.sɔ̃/	assouvissez /a.su.vi.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).

Related terms

• assouvissable
• assouvissement

Further reading

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