cafouiller

French

Etymology

From Picard, from ca- +‎ fouiller.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.fu.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

cafouiller

1. (intransitive) to play up, be in a mess, fall apart

Conjugation

Conjugation of cafouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cafouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	cafouillant /ka.fu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cafouillé /ka.fu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cafouille /ka.fuj/	cafouilles /ka.fuj/	cafouille /ka.fuj/	cafouillons /ka.fu.jɔ̃/	cafouillez /ka.fu.je/	cafouillent /ka.fuj/
	imperfect	cafouillais /ka.fu.jɛ/	cafouillais /ka.fu.jɛ/	cafouillait /ka.fu.jɛ/	cafouillions /ka.fuj.jɔ̃/	cafouilliez /ka.fuj.je/	cafouillaient /ka.fu.jɛ/
	past historic2	cafouillai /ka.fu.je/	cafouillas /ka.fu.ja/	cafouilla /ka.fu.ja/	cafouillâmes /ka.fu.jam/	cafouillâtes /ka.fu.jat/	cafouillèrent /ka.fu.jɛʁ/
	future	cafouillerai /ka.fuj.ʁe/	cafouilleras /ka.fuj.ʁa/	cafouillera /ka.fuj.ʁa/	cafouillerons /ka.fuj.ʁɔ̃/	cafouillerez /ka.fuj.ʁe/	cafouilleront /ka.fuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cafouillerais /ka.fuj.ʁɛ/	cafouillerais /ka.fuj.ʁɛ/	cafouillerait /ka.fuj.ʁɛ/	cafouillerions /ka.fu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	cafouilleriez /ka.fu.jə.ʁje/	cafouilleraient /ka.fuj.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	cafouille /ka.fuj/	cafouilles /ka.fuj/	cafouille /ka.fuj/	cafouillions /ka.fuj.jɔ̃/	cafouilliez /ka.fuj.je/	cafouillent /ka.fuj/
	imperfect2	cafouillasse /ka.fu.jas/	cafouillasses /ka.fu.jas/	cafouillât /ka.fu.ja/	cafouillassions /ka.fu.ja.sjɔ̃/	cafouillassiez /ka.fu.ja.sje/	cafouillassent /ka.fu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cafouille /ka.fuj/	—	cafouillons /ka.fu.jɔ̃/	cafouillez /ka.fu.je/	—
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

• cafouillage
• cafouillis

Further reading

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