retentir

French

Etymology

From re- + Old French tentir, from *tinnitire, from a participle form of Latin tinnire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.tɑ̃.tiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

retentir

1. (intransitive) to ring, to ring out

   Synonym: résonner

2. (intransitive, figurative) to have a strong effect

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 retentir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	retentir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	retentissant /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		retenti /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentit /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentissons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	retentissez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.se/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect	retentissais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissait /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissaient /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentit /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentîmes /ʁə.tɑ̃.tim/	retentîtes /ʁə.tɑ̃.tit/	retentirent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tiʁ/
	future	retentirai /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	retentiras /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	retentira /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	retentirons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/	retentirez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	retentiront /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	retentirais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirais /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirait /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	retentirions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	retentiriez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.ʁje/	retentiraient /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.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	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisses /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect2	retentisse /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentisses /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/	retentît /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	retentissions /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	retentissiez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sje/	retentissent /ʁə.tɑ̃.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	retentis /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti/	—	retentissons /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	retentissez /ʁə.tɑ̃.ti.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

• retentissant
• retentissement

 

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• retirent, tirèrent, trièrent