guetter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French gaitier, guaitier, from Frankish *wahtōn, *wahtjan (“to watch, guard”), derivative of *wahta (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Germanic *wahtwō (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be fresh, cheerful, awake”). Compare English wait, ultimately from the same origin through an Anglo-Norman/Old Northern French variant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛ.te/ ~ /ɡe.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: guettai, guetté, guettée, guettées, guettés, guettez, gaieté

Verb

guetter

1. (transitive) to watch (intently), to watch for, to lie in wait

   Near-synonym: épier

   Le chat guette la souris. ― The cat lies in wait for the mouse.

   Des gendarmes le guettent. ― Gendarmes are lying in wait for him.

   • 1947, “C'est si bon”, André Hornez (lyrics), Henri Betti (music):

     C’est si bon / De guetter dans ses yeux

     It's so good / To look into our eyes

2. (transitive, figurative) to await in order to seize

   guetter une occasion ― to wait for an opportunity

3. (transitive, figurative) to menace, to loom (to appear in a threatening form)

   La mort le guette. ― Death hangs over him.

   • 1997, Bernard Fauconnier, chapter 3, in Kaïros, Grasset:

     J’avais acheté une vieille 4L dont les cardans exténués rendaient d’inquiétants sons de castagnettes et je roulais des journées entières sur des routes où la mort guettait à chaque virage.

     I had bought an old [Renault] 4L whose worn-out joints were worryingly making sounds like castanets, and I drove for whole days on roads where death seemed to lurk around every corner.

Conjugation

Conjugation of guetter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	guetter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	guettant /ɡɛ.tɑ̃/ or /ɡe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		guetté /ɡɛ.te/ or /ɡe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	guette /ɡɛt/	guettes /ɡɛt/	guette /ɡɛt/	guettons /ɡɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tɔ̃/	guettez /ɡɛ.te/ or /ɡe.te/	guettent /ɡɛt/
	imperfect	guettais /ɡɛ.tɛ/ or /ɡe.tɛ/	guettais /ɡɛ.tɛ/ or /ɡe.tɛ/	guettait /ɡɛ.tɛ/ or /ɡe.tɛ/	guettions /ɡɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tjɔ̃/	guettiez /ɡɛ.tje/ or /ɡe.tje/	guettaient /ɡɛ.tɛ/ or /ɡe.tɛ/
	past historic2	guettai /ɡɛ.te/ or /ɡe.te/	guettas /ɡɛ.ta/ or /ɡe.ta/	guetta /ɡɛ.ta/ or /ɡe.ta/	guettâmes /ɡɛ.tam/ or /ɡe.tam/	guettâtes /ɡɛ.tat/ or /ɡe.tat/	guettèrent /ɡɛ.tɛʁ/ or /ɡe.tɛʁ/
	future	guetterai /ɡɛ.tʁe/ or /ɡe.tʁe/	guetteras /ɡɛ.tʁa/ or /ɡe.tʁa/	guettera /ɡɛ.tʁa/ or /ɡe.tʁa/	guetterons /ɡɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tʁɔ̃/	guetterez /ɡɛ.tʁe/ or /ɡe.tʁe/	guetteront /ɡɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	guetterais /ɡɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɡe.tʁɛ/	guetterais /ɡɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɡe.tʁɛ/	guetterait /ɡɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɡe.tʁɛ/	guetterions /ɡɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	guetteriez /ɡɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ɡe.tə.ʁje/	guetteraient /ɡɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ɡe.tʁɛ/
(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	guette /ɡɛt/	guettes /ɡɛt/	guette /ɡɛt/	guettions /ɡɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tjɔ̃/	guettiez /ɡɛ.tje/ or /ɡe.tje/	guettent /ɡɛt/
	imperfect2	guettasse /ɡɛ.tas/ or /ɡe.tas/	guettasses /ɡɛ.tas/ or /ɡe.tas/	guettât /ɡɛ.ta/ or /ɡe.ta/	guettassions /ɡɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /ɡe.ta.sjɔ̃/	guettassiez /ɡɛ.ta.sje/ or /ɡe.ta.sje/	guettassent /ɡɛ.tas/ or /ɡe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	guette /ɡɛt/	—	guettons /ɡɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ɡe.tɔ̃/	guettez /ɡɛ.te/ or /ɡe.te/	—
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

• guetteur

Related terms

• guet-apens (“ambush”)
• guet

Descendants

• Saint Dominican Creole French: gueté

Further reading

• “guetter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “guetter” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.