fléchir

See also: flechir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French flechir, from an original flechier (with a change in verb class), from Vulgar Latin *flecticāre, frequentative based on Latin flectere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fle.ʃiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

fléchir

1. (transitive) to bend, to fold
2. (intransitive) to bend, to bend over
3. (transitive) to flex (eg. a muscle)
4. (figuratively, transitive) to provoke pity

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of fléchir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	fléchir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	fléchissant /fle.ʃi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		fléchi /fle.ʃi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fléchis /fle.ʃi/	fléchis /fle.ʃi/	fléchit /fle.ʃi/	fléchissons /fle.ʃi.sɔ̃/	fléchissez /fle.ʃi.se/	fléchissent /fle.ʃis/
	imperfect	fléchissais /fle.ʃi.sɛ/	fléchissais /fle.ʃi.sɛ/	fléchissait /fle.ʃi.sɛ/	fléchissions /fle.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	fléchissiez /fle.ʃi.sje/	fléchissaient /fle.ʃi.sɛ/
	past historic2	fléchis /fle.ʃi/	fléchis /fle.ʃi/	fléchit /fle.ʃi/	fléchîmes /fle.ʃim/	fléchîtes /fle.ʃit/	fléchirent /fle.ʃiʁ/
	future	fléchirai /fle.ʃi.ʁe/	fléchiras /fle.ʃi.ʁa/	fléchira /fle.ʃi.ʁa/	fléchirons /fle.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/	fléchirez /fle.ʃi.ʁe/	fléchiront /fle.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	fléchirais /fle.ʃi.ʁɛ/	fléchirais /fle.ʃi.ʁɛ/	fléchirait /fle.ʃi.ʁɛ/	fléchirions /fle.ʃi.ʁjɔ̃/	fléchiriez /fle.ʃi.ʁje/	fléchiraient /fle.ʃi.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	fléchisse /fle.ʃis/	fléchisses /fle.ʃis/	fléchisse /fle.ʃis/	fléchissions /fle.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	fléchissiez /fle.ʃi.sje/	fléchissent /fle.ʃis/
	imperfect2	fléchisse /fle.ʃis/	fléchisses /fle.ʃis/	fléchît /fle.ʃi/	fléchissions /fle.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	fléchissiez /fle.ʃi.sje/	fléchissent /fle.ʃis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fléchis /fle.ʃi/	—	fléchissons /fle.ʃi.sɔ̃/	fléchissez /fle.ʃi.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

• degré fléchi

References

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