caractériser

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.ze/

• Audio:

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Verb

caractériser

1. to characterize

Conjugation

Conjugation of caractériser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	caractériser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	caractérisant /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		caractérisé /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.ze/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	caractérise /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérises /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérise /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérisons /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɔ̃/	caractérisez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.ze/	caractérisent /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/
	imperfect	caractérisais /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɛ/	caractérisais /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɛ/	caractérisait /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɛ/	caractérisions /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zjɔ̃/	caractérisiez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zje/	caractérisaient /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɛ/
	past historic2	caractérisai /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.ze/	caractérisas /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.za/	caractérisa /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.za/	caractérisâmes /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zam/	caractérisâtes /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zat/	caractérisèrent /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɛʁ/
	future	caractériserai /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁe/	caractériseras /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁa/	caractérisera /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁa/	caractériserons /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁɔ̃/	caractériserez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁe/	caractériseront /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	caractériserais /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁɛ/	caractériserais /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁɛ/	caractériserait /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.ʁɛ/	caractériserions /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zə.ʁjɔ̃/	caractériseriez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zə.ʁje/	caractériseraient /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz.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	caractérise /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérises /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérise /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	caractérisions /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zjɔ̃/	caractérisiez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zje/	caractérisent /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/
	imperfect2	caractérisasse /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zas/	caractérisasses /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zas/	caractérisât /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.za/	caractérisassions /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.za.sjɔ̃/	caractérisassiez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.za.sje/	caractérisassent /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	caractérise /ka.ʁak.te.ʁiz/	—	caractérisons /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.zɔ̃/	caractérisez /ka.ʁak.te.ʁi.ze/	—
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

• caractère
• caractéristique

Further reading

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