piocher

French

Etymology

From pioche (“pickaxe”).

Pronunciation

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• Audio (Canada):

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Verb

piocher

1. to use a pickaxe
2. to cram, to swot, to grind (e.g., for an exam)
3. to slog away, drudge (to work very hard)
4. to pick, choose, select from a set of options
5. (card games) to draw from the deck

Conjugation

Conjugation of piocher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	piocher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	piochant /pjɔ.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pioché /pjɔ.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pioche /pjɔʃ/	pioches /pjɔʃ/	pioche /pjɔʃ/	piochons /pjɔ.ʃɔ̃/	piochez /pjɔ.ʃe/	piochent /pjɔʃ/
	imperfect	piochais /pjɔ.ʃɛ/	piochais /pjɔ.ʃɛ/	piochait /pjɔ.ʃɛ/	piochions /pjɔ.ʃjɔ̃/	piochiez /pjɔ.ʃje/	piochaient /pjɔ.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	piochai /pjɔ.ʃe/	piochas /pjɔ.ʃa/	piocha /pjɔ.ʃa/	piochâmes /pjɔ.ʃam/	piochâtes /pjɔ.ʃat/	piochèrent /pjɔ.ʃɛʁ/
	future	piocherai /pjɔʃ.ʁe/	piocheras /pjɔʃ.ʁa/	piochera /pjɔʃ.ʁa/	piocherons /pjɔʃ.ʁɔ̃/	piocherez /pjɔʃ.ʁe/	piocheront /pjɔʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	piocherais /pjɔʃ.ʁɛ/	piocherais /pjɔʃ.ʁɛ/	piocherait /pjɔʃ.ʁɛ/	piocherions /pjɔ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	piocheriez /pjɔ.ʃə.ʁje/	piocheraient /pjɔʃ.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	pioche /pjɔʃ/	pioches /pjɔʃ/	pioche /pjɔʃ/	piochions /pjɔ.ʃjɔ̃/	piochiez /pjɔ.ʃje/	piochent /pjɔʃ/
	imperfect2	piochasse /pjɔ.ʃas/	piochasses /pjɔ.ʃas/	piochât /pjɔ.ʃa/	piochassions /pjɔ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	piochassiez /pjɔ.ʃa.sje/	piochassent /pjɔ.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pioche /pjɔʃ/	—	piochons /pjɔ.ʃɔ̃/	piochez /pjɔ.ʃe/	—
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).

Further reading

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