comparaître

See also: comparaitre

French

Alternative forms

• comparaitre

Etymology

Formed from paraître, apparaître based on Old French comparoir, from Latin comparere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛtʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Verb

comparaître

1. (law) to appear before a judge or government official

Conjugation

This verb is one of a fairly small group of -re verbs that are all conjugated the same way. They are unlike other verb groups in that the 'i' is given a circumflex before a 't'.

Conjugation of comparaître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	comparaître
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	comparaissant /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɑ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		comparu /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	comparais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ/	comparais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ/	comparaît /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ/	comparaissons /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɔ̃/	comparaissez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.se/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.se/	comparaissent /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛs/
	imperfect	comparaissais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɛ/	comparaissais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɛ/	comparaissait /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɛ/	comparaissions /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sjɔ̃/	comparaissiez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sje/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sje/	comparaissaient /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɛ/
	past historic2	comparus /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy/	comparus /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy/	comparut /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy/	comparûmes /kɔ̃.pa.ʁym/	comparûtes /kɔ̃.pa.ʁyt/	comparurent /kɔ̃.pa.ʁyʁ/
	future	comparaîtrai /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁe/	comparaîtras /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁa/	comparaîtra /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁa/	comparaîtrons /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɔ̃/	comparaîtrez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁe/	comparaîtront /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	comparaîtrais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɛ/	comparaîtrais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɛ/	comparaîtrait /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɛ/	comparaîtrions /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁi.jɔ̃/	comparaîtriez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁi.je/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁi.je/	comparaîtraient /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.tʁɛ/
(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	comparaisse /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛs/	comparaisses /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛs/	comparaisse /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛs/	comparaissions /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sjɔ̃/	comparaissiez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sje/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sje/	comparaissent /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛs/
	imperfect2	comparusse /kɔ̃.pa.ʁys/	comparusses /kɔ̃.pa.ʁys/	comparût /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy/	comparussions /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy.sjɔ̃/	comparussiez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁy.sje/	comparussent /kɔ̃.pa.ʁys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	comparais /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ/	—	comparaissons /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.sɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.sɔ̃/	comparaissez /kɔ̃.pa.ʁɛ.se/ or /kɔ̃.pa.ʁe.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

• comparution

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• comparerait