prémâcher

French

Etymology

From pré- +‎ mâcher.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁe.ma.ʃe/ ~ /pʁe.mɑ.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

prémâcher

1. (transitive) to prechew (to chew in advance)
2. (transitive, figuratively, derogatory) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

   prémâcher le travail à quelqu’un ― to break the back of the work for someone, to do the worst of the work for someone; to spoonfeed someone (to make a task easier for someone by doing half the work for them, especially the difficult parts)

Conjugation

Conjugation of prémâcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	prémâcher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	prémâchant /pʁe.ma.ʃɑ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		prémâché /pʁe.ma.ʃe/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	prémâche /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâches /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâche /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâchons /pʁe.ma.ʃɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɔ̃/	prémâchez /pʁe.ma.ʃe/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃe/	prémâchent /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/
	imperfect	prémâchais /pʁe.ma.ʃɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɛ/	prémâchais /pʁe.ma.ʃɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɛ/	prémâchait /pʁe.ma.ʃɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɛ/	prémâchions /pʁe.ma.ʃjɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃjɔ̃/	prémâchiez /pʁe.ma.ʃje/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃje/	prémâchaient /pʁe.ma.ʃɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	prémâchai /pʁe.ma.ʃe/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃe/	prémâchas /pʁe.ma.ʃa/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃa/	prémâcha /pʁe.ma.ʃa/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃa/	prémâchâmes /pʁe.ma.ʃam/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃam/	prémâchâtes /pʁe.ma.ʃat/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃat/	prémâchèrent /pʁe.ma.ʃɛʁ/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɛʁ/
	future	prémâcherai /pʁe.maʃ.ʁe/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁe/	prémâcheras /pʁe.maʃ.ʁa/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁa/	prémâchera /pʁe.maʃ.ʁa/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁa/	prémâcherons /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/	prémâcherez /pʁe.maʃ.ʁe/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁe/	prémâcheront /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	prémâcherais /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	prémâcherais /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	prémâcherait /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.ʁɛ/	prémâcherions /pʁe.ma.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	prémâcheriez /pʁe.ma.ʃə.ʁje/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃə.ʁje/	prémâcheraient /pʁe.maʃ.ʁɛ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ.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	prémâche /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâches /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâche /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	prémâchions /pʁe.ma.ʃjɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃjɔ̃/	prémâchiez /pʁe.ma.ʃje/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃje/	prémâchent /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/
	imperfect2	prémâchasse /pʁe.ma.ʃas/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃas/	prémâchasses /pʁe.ma.ʃas/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃas/	prémâchât /pʁe.ma.ʃa/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃa/	prémâchassions /pʁe.ma.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	prémâchassiez /pʁe.ma.ʃa.sje/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃa.sje/	prémâchassent /pʁe.ma.ʃas/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	prémâche /pʁe.maʃ/ or /pʁe.mɑʃ/	—	prémâchons /pʁe.ma.ʃɔ̃/ or /pʁe.mɑ.ʃɔ̃/	prémâchez /pʁe.ma.ʃe/ or /pʁe.mɑ.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

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