bêler

French

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin bēlāre, a variant of bālō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛ.le/ ~ /be.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

bêler

1. to baa; to bleat (make cry of sheep)

Conjugation

Conjugation of bêler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bêler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bêlant /bɛ.lɑ̃/ or /be.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bêlé /bɛ.le/ or /be.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bêle /bɛl/	bêles /bɛl/	bêle /bɛl/	bêlons /bɛ.lɔ̃/ or /be.lɔ̃/	bêlez /bɛ.le/ or /be.le/	bêlent /bɛl/
	imperfect	bêlais /bɛ.lɛ/ or /be.lɛ/	bêlais /bɛ.lɛ/ or /be.lɛ/	bêlait /bɛ.lɛ/ or /be.lɛ/	bêlions /bɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /be.ljɔ̃/	bêliez /bɛ.lje/ or /be.lje/	bêlaient /bɛ.lɛ/ or /be.lɛ/
	past historic2	bêlai /bɛ.le/ or /be.le/	bêlas /bɛ.la/ or /be.la/	bêla /bɛ.la/ or /be.la/	bêlâmes /bɛ.lam/ or /be.lam/	bêlâtes /bɛ.lat/ or /be.lat/	bêlèrent /bɛ.lɛʁ/ or /be.lɛʁ/
	future	bêlerai /bɛl.ʁe/	bêleras /bɛl.ʁa/	bêlera /bɛl.ʁa/	bêlerons /bɛl.ʁɔ̃/	bêlerez /bɛl.ʁe/	bêleront /bɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bêlerais /bɛl.ʁɛ/	bêlerais /bɛl.ʁɛ/	bêlerait /bɛl.ʁɛ/	bêlerions /bɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /be.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	bêleriez /bɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /be.lə.ʁje/	bêleraient /bɛl.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	bêle /bɛl/	bêles /bɛl/	bêle /bɛl/	bêlions /bɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /be.ljɔ̃/	bêliez /bɛ.lje/ or /be.lje/	bêlent /bɛl/
	imperfect2	bêlasse /bɛ.las/ or /be.las/	bêlasses /bɛ.las/ or /be.las/	bêlât /bɛ.la/ or /be.la/	bêlassions /bɛ.la.sjɔ̃/ or /be.la.sjɔ̃/	bêlassiez /bɛ.la.sje/ or /be.la.sje/	bêlassent /bɛ.las/ or /be.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bêle /bɛl/	—	bêlons /bɛ.lɔ̃/ or /be.lɔ̃/	bêlez /bɛ.le/ or /be.le/	—
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

• bêlement

Further reading

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