refréner

See also: refrener, and réfréner

French

Alternative forms

• réfréner

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin refrēnāre. Replaced Old French refraindre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fʁe.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

refréner

1. (transitive) to curb, repress

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written refréner-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written refrèner-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of refréner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	refréner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	refrénant /ʁə.fʁe.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		refréné /ʁə.fʁe.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrènes /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrénons /ʁə.fʁe.nɔ̃/	refrénez /ʁə.fʁe.ne/	refrènent /ʁə.fʁɛn/
	imperfect	refrénais /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/	refrénais /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/	refrénait /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/	refrénions /ʁə.fʁe.njɔ̃/	refréniez /ʁə.fʁe.nje/	refrénaient /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/
	past historic2	refrénai /ʁə.fʁe.ne/	refrénas /ʁə.fʁe.na/	refréna /ʁə.fʁe.na/	refrénâmes /ʁə.fʁe.nam/	refrénâtes /ʁə.fʁe.nat/	refrénèrent /ʁə.fʁe.nɛʁ/
	future	refrènerai or refrénerai /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁe/	refrèneras or refréneras /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁa/	refrènera or refrénera /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁa/	refrènerons or refrénerons /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɔ̃/	refrènerez or refrénerez /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁe/	refrèneront or refréneront /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	refrènerais or refrénerais /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/	refrènerais or refrénerais /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/	refrènerait or refrénerait /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/	refrènerions or refrénerions /ʁə.fʁɛ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.fʁe.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	refrèneriez or refréneriez /ʁə.fʁɛ.nə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.fʁe.nə.ʁje/	refrèneraient or refréneraient /ʁə.fʁɛn.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	refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrènes /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/	refrénions /ʁə.fʁe.njɔ̃/	refréniez /ʁə.fʁe.nje/	refrènent /ʁə.fʁɛn/
	imperfect2	refrénasse /ʁə.fʁe.nas/	refrénasses /ʁə.fʁe.nas/	refrénât /ʁə.fʁe.na/	refrénassions /ʁə.fʁe.na.sjɔ̃/	refrénassiez /ʁə.fʁe.na.sje/	refrénassent /ʁə.fʁe.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/	—	refrénons /ʁə.fʁe.nɔ̃/	refrénez /ʁə.fʁe.ne/	—
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

• frein

Further reading

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