nourrir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French nourrir, from Old French norrir, inherited from Latin nūtrīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nu.ʁiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

nourrir

1. to feed (provide with nourishment), nourish
2. to nurture, to fuel
3. (pronominal) to eat, to feed oneself

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 nourrir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	nourrir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	nourrissant /nu.ʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		nourri /nu.ʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	nourris /nu.ʁi/	nourris /nu.ʁi/	nourrit /nu.ʁi/	nourrissons /nu.ʁi.sɔ̃/	nourrissez /nu.ʁi.se/	nourrissent /nu.ʁis/
	imperfect	nourrissais /nu.ʁi.sɛ/	nourrissais /nu.ʁi.sɛ/	nourrissait /nu.ʁi.sɛ/	nourrissions /nu.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	nourrissiez /nu.ʁi.sje/	nourrissaient /nu.ʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	nourris /nu.ʁi/	nourris /nu.ʁi/	nourrit /nu.ʁi/	nourrîmes /nu.ʁim/	nourrîtes /nu.ʁit/	nourrirent /nu.ʁiʁ/
	future	nourrirai /nu.ʁi.ʁe/	nourriras /nu.ʁi.ʁa/	nourrira /nu.ʁi.ʁa/	nourrirons /nu.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/	nourrirez /nu.ʁi.ʁe/	nourriront /nu.ʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	nourrirais /nu.ʁi.ʁɛ/	nourrirais /nu.ʁi.ʁɛ/	nourrirait /nu.ʁi.ʁɛ/	nourririons /nu.ʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	nourririez /nu.ʁi.ʁje/	nourriraient /nu.ʁi.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	nourrisse /nu.ʁis/	nourrisses /nu.ʁis/	nourrisse /nu.ʁis/	nourrissions /nu.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	nourrissiez /nu.ʁi.sje/	nourrissent /nu.ʁis/
	imperfect2	nourrisse /nu.ʁis/	nourrisses /nu.ʁis/	nourrît /nu.ʁi/	nourrissions /nu.ʁi.sjɔ̃/	nourrissiez /nu.ʁi.sje/	nourrissent /nu.ʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	nourris /nu.ʁi/	—	nourrissons /nu.ʁi.sɔ̃/	nourrissez /nu.ʁi.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).

Related terms

• nourrice
• nourrir son homme
• nourrisson
• nourriture
• nutriment
• nutrition

Further reading

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

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French norrir.

Verb

nourrir

1. to feed (provide with nourishment)

Descendants

• French: nourrir