envoyer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French enveier, from Late Latin inviāre, from Latin via (“road, path”). Compare Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, and Catalan enviar, Italian inviare. The irregularity on future and conditional stem were influenced by that of voir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.vwa.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

envoyer

1. to send
2. (reflexive) to gulp down with relish

Conjugation

This verb is one of a few verbs that conjugate like noyer, except in the future and conditional, where they conjugate like voir.

Conjugation of envoyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	envoyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	envoyant /ɑ̃.vwa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		envoyé /ɑ̃.vwa.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	envoie /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoies /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoie /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoyons /ɑ̃.vwa.jɔ̃/	envoyez /ɑ̃.vwa.je/	envoient /ɑ̃.vwa/
	imperfect	envoyais /ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ/	envoyais /ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ/	envoyait /ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ/	envoyions /ɑ̃.vwaj.jɔ̃/	envoyiez /ɑ̃.vwaj.je/	envoyaient /ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ/
	past historic2	envoyai /ɑ̃.vwa.je/	envoyas /ɑ̃.vwa.ja/	envoya /ɑ̃.vwa.ja/	envoyâmes /ɑ̃.vwa.jam/	envoyâtes /ɑ̃.vwa.jat/	envoyèrent /ɑ̃.vwa.jɛʁ/
	future	enverrai /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁe/	enverras /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁa/	enverra /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁa/	enverrons /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁɔ̃/	enverrez /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁe/	enverront /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	enverrais /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁɛ/	enverrais /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁɛ/	enverrait /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁɛ/	enverrions /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁjɔ̃/	enverriez /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.ve.ʁje/	enverraient /ɑ̃.vɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ve.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	envoie /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoies /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoie /ɑ̃.vwa/	envoyions /ɑ̃.vwaj.jɔ̃/	envoyiez /ɑ̃.vwaj.je/	envoient /ɑ̃.vwa/
	imperfect2	envoyasse /ɑ̃.vwa.jas/	envoyasses /ɑ̃.vwa.jas/	envoyât /ɑ̃.vwa.ja/	envoyassions /ɑ̃.vwa.ja.sjɔ̃/	envoyassiez /ɑ̃.vwa.ja.sje/	envoyassent /ɑ̃.vwa.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	envoie /ɑ̃.vwa/	—	envoyons /ɑ̃.vwa.jɔ̃/	envoyez /ɑ̃.vwa.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).

Synonyms

• expédier

Derived terms

• envoyer ad patres
• envoyer balader
• envoyer bouler
• envoyer chier
• envoyer des fleurs
• envoyer du lourd
• envoyer du pâté
• envoyer du steak
• envoyer paître
• envoyer par le fond
• envoyer promener
• envoyer son gantelet
• envoyer sur les roses
• s’envoyer en l’air

 

Related terms

• envoi
• envoyeur

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• renvoyé