fesser

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French fesser, derived from Old French faisse, fece ((Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) compare Old French faisser), derived from Latin fascia. The spelling and sense (originally "to strike with a rod") influenced by unrelated fesse (“buttock”)).

Compare also Late Latin fasciāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛ.se/ ~ /fe.se/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Verb

fesser

1. to spank

   Quand les enfants se tiennent mal, leurs parents les fessent et tout ça se répète le lendemain.

   When children misbehave, their parents spank them, then it all happens again the next day.

1. (Quebec, slang) to whack, to strike or crash into

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Conjugation

Conjugation of fesser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	fesser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	fessant /fɛ.sɑ̃/ or /fe.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		fessé /fɛ.se/ or /fe.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fesse /fɛs/	fesses /fɛs/	fesse /fɛs/	fessons /fɛ.sɔ̃/ or /fe.sɔ̃/	fessez /fɛ.se/ or /fe.se/	fessent /fɛs/
	imperfect	fessais /fɛ.sɛ/ or /fe.sɛ/	fessais /fɛ.sɛ/ or /fe.sɛ/	fessait /fɛ.sɛ/ or /fe.sɛ/	fessions /fɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /fe.sjɔ̃/	fessiez /fɛ.sje/ or /fe.sje/	fessaient /fɛ.sɛ/ or /fe.sɛ/
	past historic2	fessai /fɛ.se/ or /fe.se/	fessas /fɛ.sa/ or /fe.sa/	fessa /fɛ.sa/ or /fe.sa/	fessâmes /fɛ.sam/ or /fe.sam/	fessâtes /fɛ.sat/ or /fe.sat/	fessèrent /fɛ.sɛʁ/ or /fe.sɛʁ/
	future	fesserai /fɛ.sʁe/ or /fe.sʁe/	fesseras /fɛ.sʁa/ or /fe.sʁa/	fessera /fɛ.sʁa/ or /fe.sʁa/	fesserons /fɛ.sʁɔ̃/ or /fe.sʁɔ̃/	fesserez /fɛ.sʁe/ or /fe.sʁe/	fesseront /fɛ.sʁɔ̃/ or /fe.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	fesserais /fɛ.sʁɛ/ or /fe.sʁɛ/	fesserais /fɛ.sʁɛ/ or /fe.sʁɛ/	fesserait /fɛ.sʁɛ/ or /fe.sʁɛ/	fesserions /fɛ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /fe.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	fesseriez /fɛ.sə.ʁje/ or /fe.sə.ʁje/	fesseraient /fɛ.sʁɛ/ or /fe.sʁɛ/
(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	fesse /fɛs/	fesses /fɛs/	fesse /fɛs/	fessions /fɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /fe.sjɔ̃/	fessiez /fɛ.sje/ or /fe.sje/	fessent /fɛs/
	imperfect2	fessasse /fɛ.sas/ or /fe.sas/	fessasses /fɛ.sas/ or /fe.sas/	fessât /fɛ.sa/ or /fe.sa/	fessassions /fɛ.sa.sjɔ̃/ or /fe.sa.sjɔ̃/	fessassiez /fɛ.sa.sje/ or /fe.sa.sje/	fessassent /fɛ.sas/ or /fe.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fesse /fɛs/	—	fessons /fɛ.sɔ̃/ or /fe.sɔ̃/	fessez /fɛ.se/ or /fe.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

• fessé
• fessée f

Further reading

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