pénétrer

See also: penetrer

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe.ne.tʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

pénétrer

1. (transitive) to enter, to get in (to)

   Comment a-t-il pu pénétrer le site? ― How did he get into the site?

2. to penetrate
3. to see through somebody's lies or secret plans

   Cet homme a beau feindre, il n’est pas difficile à pénétrer. ― That man may well pretend, but it's easy to see through his lies.

4. to penetrate (to enter sexually; to engage in penetrative sex)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written pénétrer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written pénètrer-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of pénétrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pénétrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pénétrant /pe.ne.tʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pénétré /pe.ne.tʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pénètre /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénètres /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénètre /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénétrons /pe.ne.tʁɔ̃/	pénétrez /pe.ne.tʁe/	pénètrent /pe.nɛtʁ/
	imperfect	pénétrais /pe.ne.tʁɛ/	pénétrais /pe.ne.tʁɛ/	pénétrait /pe.ne.tʁɛ/	pénétrions /pe.ne.tʁi.jɔ̃/	pénétriez /pe.ne.tʁi.je/	pénétraient /pe.ne.tʁɛ/
	past historic2	pénétrai /pe.ne.tʁe/	pénétras /pe.ne.tʁa/	pénétra /pe.ne.tʁa/	pénétrâmes /pe.ne.tʁam/	pénétrâtes /pe.ne.tʁat/	pénétrèrent /pe.ne.tʁɛʁ/
	future	pénètrerai or pénétrerai /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁe/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁe/	pénètreras or pénétreras /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁa/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁa/	pénètrera or pénétrera /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁa/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁa/	pénètrerons or pénétrerons /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/	pénètrerez or pénétrerez /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁe/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁe/	pénètreront or pénétreront /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pénètrerais or pénétrerais /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁɛ/	pénètrerais or pénétrerais /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁɛ/	pénètrerait or pénétrerait /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁɛ/	pénètrerions or pénétrerions /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	pénètreriez or pénétreriez /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁje/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.ʁje/	pénètreraient or pénétreraient /pe.nɛ.tʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pe.ne.tʁə.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	pénètre /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénètres /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénètre /pe.nɛtʁ/	pénétrions /pe.ne.tʁi.jɔ̃/	pénétriez /pe.ne.tʁi.je/	pénètrent /pe.nɛtʁ/
	imperfect2	pénétrasse /pe.ne.tʁas/	pénétrasses /pe.ne.tʁas/	pénétrât /pe.ne.tʁa/	pénétrassions /pe.ne.tʁa.sjɔ̃/	pénétrassiez /pe.ne.tʁa.sje/	pénétrassent /pe.ne.tʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pénètre /pe.nɛtʁ/	—	pénétrons /pe.ne.tʁɔ̃/	pénétrez /pe.ne.tʁe/	—
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

• pénétration
• pénétrer par effraction

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• repèrent