flâner

French

Etymology

From the Norman verb flan(n)er. First known usage in French (flaner) in the 19th century. The Norman verb is a descendant of Old Norse flana (“to get into something heedlessly”). Compare Icelandic flana (“to rush, to act rashly, to get into something heedlessly”), flandra and flandur. See also Norwegian flane and flakke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla.ne/ ~ /flɑ.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

flâner

1. to wander around
2. to loiter, mill about

Conjugation

Conjugation of flâner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	flâner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	flânant /fla.nɑ̃/ or /flɑ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		flâné /fla.ne/ or /flɑ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	flâne /flan/ or /flɑn/	flânes /flan/ or /flɑn/	flâne /flan/ or /flɑn/	flânons /fla.nɔ̃/ or /flɑ.nɔ̃/	flânez /fla.ne/ or /flɑ.ne/	flânent /flan/ or /flɑn/
	imperfect	flânais /fla.nɛ/ or /flɑ.nɛ/	flânais /fla.nɛ/ or /flɑ.nɛ/	flânait /fla.nɛ/ or /flɑ.nɛ/	flânions /fla.njɔ̃/ or /flɑ.njɔ̃/	flâniez /fla.nje/ or /flɑ.nje/	flânaient /fla.nɛ/ or /flɑ.nɛ/
	past historic2	flânai /fla.ne/ or /flɑ.ne/	flânas /fla.na/ or /flɑ.na/	flâna /fla.na/ or /flɑ.na/	flânâmes /fla.nam/ or /flɑ.nam/	flânâtes /fla.nat/ or /flɑ.nat/	flânèrent /fla.nɛʁ/ or /flɑ.nɛʁ/
	future	flânerai /flan.ʁe/ or /flɑn.ʁe/	flâneras /flan.ʁa/ or /flɑn.ʁa/	flânera /flan.ʁa/ or /flɑn.ʁa/	flânerons /flan.ʁɔ̃/ or /flɑn.ʁɔ̃/	flânerez /flan.ʁe/ or /flɑn.ʁe/	flâneront /flan.ʁɔ̃/ or /flɑn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	flânerais /flan.ʁɛ/ or /flɑn.ʁɛ/	flânerais /flan.ʁɛ/ or /flɑn.ʁɛ/	flânerait /flan.ʁɛ/ or /flɑn.ʁɛ/	flânerions /fla.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /flɑ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	flâneriez /fla.nə.ʁje/ or /flɑ.nə.ʁje/	flâneraient /flan.ʁɛ/ or /flɑn.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	flâne /flan/ or /flɑn/	flânes /flan/ or /flɑn/	flâne /flan/ or /flɑn/	flânions /fla.njɔ̃/ or /flɑ.njɔ̃/	flâniez /fla.nje/ or /flɑ.nje/	flânent /flan/ or /flɑn/
	imperfect2	flânasse /fla.nas/ or /flɑ.nas/	flânasses /fla.nas/ or /flɑ.nas/	flânât /fla.na/ or /flɑ.na/	flânassions /fla.na.sjɔ̃/ or /flɑ.na.sjɔ̃/	flânassiez /fla.na.sje/ or /flɑ.na.sje/	flânassent /fla.nas/ or /flɑ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	flâne /flan/ or /flɑn/	—	flânons /fla.nɔ̃/ or /flɑ.nɔ̃/	flânez /fla.ne/ or /flɑ.ne/	—
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

• flânerie
• flâneur

Descendants

• → Dutch: flaneren
• → Russian: фланировать (flanirovatʹ)
• → German: flanieren
• Haitian Creole: flannen
• → Swedish: flanera

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• renfla