prescrire

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French prescrire (14th c.), borrowed from Latin praescrībere with adaptation to inherited écrire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛs.kʁiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

prescrire

1. to prescribe (a medication)

Conjugation

Conjugation of prescrire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	prescrire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	prescrivant /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		prescrit /pʁɛs.kʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	prescris /pʁɛs.kʁi/	prescris /pʁɛs.kʁi/	prescrit /pʁɛs.kʁi/	prescrivons /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɔ̃/	prescrivez /pʁɛs.kʁi.ve/	prescrivent /pʁɛs.kʁiv/
	imperfect	prescrivais /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɛ/	prescrivais /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɛ/	prescrivait /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɛ/	prescrivions /pʁɛs.kʁi.vjɔ̃/	prescriviez /pʁɛs.kʁi.vje/	prescrivaient /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɛ/
	past historic2	prescrivis /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi/	prescrivis /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi/	prescrivit /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi/	prescrivîmes /pʁɛs.kʁi.vim/	prescrivîtes /pʁɛs.kʁi.vit/	prescrivirent /pʁɛs.kʁi.viʁ/
	future	prescrirai /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁe/	prescriras /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁa/	prescrira /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁa/	prescrirons /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁɔ̃/	prescrirez /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁe/	prescriront /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	prescrirais /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁɛ/	prescrirais /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁɛ/	prescrirait /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁɛ/	prescririons /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	prescririez /pʁɛs.kʁi.ʁje/	prescriraient /pʁɛs.kʁi.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	prescrive /pʁɛs.kʁiv/	prescrives /pʁɛs.kʁiv/	prescrive /pʁɛs.kʁiv/	prescrivions /pʁɛs.kʁi.vjɔ̃/	prescriviez /pʁɛs.kʁi.vje/	prescrivent /pʁɛs.kʁiv/
	imperfect2	prescrivisse /pʁɛs.kʁi.vis/	prescrivisses /pʁɛs.kʁi.vis/	prescrivît /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi/	prescrivissions /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi.sjɔ̃/	prescrivissiez /pʁɛs.kʁi.vi.sje/	prescrivissent /pʁɛs.kʁi.vis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	prescris /pʁɛs.kʁi/	—	prescrivons /pʁɛs.kʁi.vɔ̃/	prescrivez /pʁɛs.kʁi.ve/	—
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

• écrire
• prescription
• prescriptif

Further reading

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