ramollir

French

Etymology

From r- +‎ amollir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.mɔ.liʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

ramollir

1. to soften, to mollify
2. (figuratively) to weaken (one's will), to soften up (someone)
3. (pronominal, se ramollir) to become soft, to soften
4. (pronominal, figuratively, of one's will) to weaken, to soften

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of ramollir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ramollir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ramollissant /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ramolli /ʁa.mɔ.li/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ramollis /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollis /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollit /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollissons /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɔ̃/	ramollissez /ʁa.mɔ.li.se/	ramollissent /ʁa.mɔ.lis/
	imperfect	ramollissais /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɛ/	ramollissais /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɛ/	ramollissait /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɛ/	ramollissions /ʁa.mɔ.li.sjɔ̃/	ramollissiez /ʁa.mɔ.li.sje/	ramollissaient /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɛ/
	past historic2	ramollis /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollis /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollit /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollîmes /ʁa.mɔ.lim/	ramollîtes /ʁa.mɔ.lit/	ramollirent /ʁa.mɔ.liʁ/
	future	ramollirai /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁe/	ramolliras /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁa/	ramollira /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁa/	ramollirons /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁɔ̃/	ramollirez /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁe/	ramolliront /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ramollirais /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁɛ/	ramollirais /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁɛ/	ramollirait /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁɛ/	ramollirions /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁjɔ̃/	ramolliriez /ʁa.mɔ.li.ʁje/	ramolliraient /ʁa.mɔ.li.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	ramollisse /ʁa.mɔ.lis/	ramollisses /ʁa.mɔ.lis/	ramollisse /ʁa.mɔ.lis/	ramollissions /ʁa.mɔ.li.sjɔ̃/	ramollissiez /ʁa.mɔ.li.sje/	ramollissent /ʁa.mɔ.lis/
	imperfect2	ramollisse /ʁa.mɔ.lis/	ramollisses /ʁa.mɔ.lis/	ramollît /ʁa.mɔ.li/	ramollissions /ʁa.mɔ.li.sjɔ̃/	ramollissiez /ʁa.mɔ.li.sje/	ramollissent /ʁa.mɔ.lis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ramollis /ʁa.mɔ.li/	—	ramollissons /ʁa.mɔ.li.sɔ̃/	ramollissez /ʁa.mɔ.li.se/	—
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

• ramollissement

Related terms

• mou / molle
• amollir

Further reading

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