racheter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French racheter, from Old French rachater. By surface analysis, re- (“re-”) +‎ acheter (“to buy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁaʃ.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

racheter (transitive)

1. to buy back
2. to buy out, buy off
3. to ransom
4. (religion) to redeem (from sin)
5. (reflexive) to make amends

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like parler, except the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-, as in the third-person singular present indicative il rachète and the third-person singular future indicative il rachètera.

Conjugation of racheter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	racheter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rachetant /ʁaʃ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		racheté /ʁaʃ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	rachète /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachètes /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachète /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachetons /ʁaʃ.tɔ̃/	rachetez /ʁaʃ.te/	rachètent /ʁa.ʃɛt/
	imperfect	rachetais /ʁaʃ.tɛ/	rachetais /ʁaʃ.tɛ/	rachetait /ʁaʃ.tɛ/	rachetions /ʁa.ʃə.tjɔ̃/	rachetiez /ʁa.ʃə.tje/	rachetaient /ʁaʃ.tɛ/
	past historic2	rachetai /ʁaʃ.te/	rachetas /ʁaʃ.ta/	racheta /ʁaʃ.ta/	rachetâmes /ʁaʃ.tam/	rachetâtes /ʁaʃ.tat/	rachetèrent /ʁaʃ.tɛʁ/
	future	rachèterai /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁe/	rachèteras /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁa/	rachètera /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁa/	rachèterons /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɔ̃/	rachèterez /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁe/	rachèteront /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rachèterais /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɛ/	rachèterais /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɛ/	rachèterait /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɛ/	rachèterions /ʁa.ʃɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	rachèteriez /ʁa.ʃɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tə.ʁje/	rachèteraient /ʁa.ʃɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁa.ʃe.tʁɛ/
(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	rachète /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachètes /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachète /ʁa.ʃɛt/	rachetions /ʁa.ʃə.tjɔ̃/	rachetiez /ʁa.ʃə.tje/	rachètent /ʁa.ʃɛt/
	imperfect2	rachetasse /ʁaʃ.tas/	rachetasses /ʁaʃ.tas/	rachetât /ʁaʃ.ta/	rachetassions /ʁaʃ.ta.sjɔ̃/	rachetassiez /ʁaʃ.ta.sje/	rachetassent /ʁaʃ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	rachète /ʁa.ʃɛt/	—	rachetons /ʁaʃ.tɔ̃/	rachetez /ʁaʃ.te/	—
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

• rachat
• rachetable
• racheteur

 

Further reading

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