contrefaire

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French contrefaire, from Late Latin *contrāfaciō, corresponding to contrā (“against”) + faciō (“to make”). By surface analysis, contre- +‎ faire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

contrefaire

1. to forge, counterfeit
2. to imitate, mimic
3. to disguise
4. to deform, disfigure

Conjugation

Conjugation of contrefaire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	contrefaire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	contrefaisant /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		contrefait /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛ/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	contrefais /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛ/	contrefais /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛ/	contrefait /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛ/	contrefaisons /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɔ̃/	contrefaites /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛt/	contrefont /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɔ̃/
	imperfect	contrefaisais /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɛ/	contrefaisais /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɛ/	contrefaisait /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɛ/	contrefaisions /kɔ̃.tʁə.fə.zjɔ̃/	contrefaisiez /kɔ̃.tʁə.fə.zje/	contrefaisaient /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɛ/
	past historic2	contrefis /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi/	contrefis /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi/	contrefit /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi/	contrefîmes /kɔ̃.tʁə.fim/	contrefîtes /kɔ̃.tʁə.fit/	contrefirent /kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʁ/
	future	contreferai /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁe/	contreferas /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁa/	contrefera /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁa/	contreferons /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁɔ̃/	contreferez /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁe/	contreferont /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	contreferais /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁɛ/	contreferais /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁɛ/	contreferait /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).ʁɛ/	contreferions /kɔ̃.tʁə.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	contreferiez /kɔ̃.tʁə.fə.ʁje/	contreferaient /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).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	contrefasse /kɔ̃.tʁə.fas/	contrefasses /kɔ̃.tʁə.fas/	contrefasse /kɔ̃.tʁə.fas/	contrefassions /kɔ̃.tʁə.fa.sjɔ̃/	contrefassiez /kɔ̃.tʁə.fa.sje/	contrefassent /kɔ̃.tʁə.fas/
	imperfect2	contrefisse /kɔ̃.tʁə.fis/	contrefisses /kɔ̃.tʁə.fis/	contrefît /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi/	contrefissions /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi.sjɔ̃/	contrefissiez /kɔ̃.tʁə.fi.sje/	contrefissent /kɔ̃.tʁə.fis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	contrefais /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛ/	—	contrefaisons /kɔ̃.tʁə.f(ə).zɔ̃/	contrefaites /kɔ̃.tʁə.fɛt/	—
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

• contrefaçon

References

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

Anagrams

• confèrerait, conférerait
• contreferai
• forcènerait
• forceraient

Old French

Alternative forms

• countrefaire

Etymology

From Late Latin *contrāfaciō, corresponding to contrā (“against”) + faciō (“to make”). By surface analysis, contre- +‎ faire.

Verb

contrefaire

1. to counterfeit (make false objects)

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of contrefaire (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		contrefaire			avoir contrefait
gerund		en contrefaisant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		contrefaisant
past participle		contrefait
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	contrefaz, contrefai	contrefais	contrefait	contrefaimes, contrefaisons	contrefaites	contrefont
	imperfect	contrefaisoie, contrefaiseie	contrefaisoies, contrefaiseies	contrefaisoit, contrefaiseit	contrefaisiiens, contrefaisiens	contrefaisiiez, contrefaisiez	contrefaisoient, contrefaiseient
	preterite	contrefis	contrefeṣis	contrefist	contrefeṣimes	contrefeṣistes	contrefirent
	future	contreferai	contreferas	contrefera	contreferons	contreferoiz, contrefereiz, contreferez	contreferont
	conditional	contreferoie, contrefereie	contreferoies, contrefereies	contreferoit, contrefereit	contreferiiens, contreferiens	contreferiiez, contreferiez	contreferoient, contrefereient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	contreface	contrefaces	contreface	contrefaciens, contrefaçons	contrefaciez	contrefacent
	imperfect	contrefeṣisse	contrefeṣisses	contrefeṣist	contrefeṣissons, contrefeṣissiens	contrefeṣissoiz, contrefeṣissez, contrefeṣissiez	contrefeṣissent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	contrefa	—	contrefaimes, contrefaisons	contrefaites	—

Descendants

• English: to counterfeit
• French: contrefaire