sécher

See also: secher

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French secher, sechier, from Latin siccāre. By surface analysis, sec +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

sécher

1. (ergative) to dry

   Antonym: mouiller

2. (informal) to play truant

   Synonyms: faire l’école buissonnière, (Belgium) brosser, (Moselle) faire bleu, bleuter

3. (intransitive, informal) to dry up, to run out of things to say
4. to fail

   Synonym: buser

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 sécher-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written sècher-, 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 sécher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	sécher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	séchant /se.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		séché /se.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	sèche /sɛʃ/	sèches /sɛʃ/	sèche /sɛʃ/	séchons /se.ʃɔ̃/	séchez /se.ʃe/	sèchent /sɛʃ/
	imperfect	séchais /se.ʃɛ/	séchais /se.ʃɛ/	séchait /se.ʃɛ/	séchions /se.ʃjɔ̃/	séchiez /se.ʃje/	séchaient /se.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	séchai /se.ʃe/	séchas /se.ʃa/	sécha /se.ʃa/	séchâmes /se.ʃam/	séchâtes /se.ʃat/	séchèrent /se.ʃɛʁ/
	future	sècherai or sécherai /sɛʃ.ʁe/	sècheras or sécheras /sɛʃ.ʁa/	sèchera or séchera /sɛʃ.ʁa/	sècherons or sécherons /sɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	sècherez or sécherez /sɛʃ.ʁe/	sècheront or sécheront /sɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	sècherais or sécherais /sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	sècherais or sécherais /sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	sècherait or sécherait /sɛʃ.ʁɛ/	sècherions or sécherions /sɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	sècheriez or sécheriez /sɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /se.ʃə.ʁje/	sècheraient or sécheraient /sɛʃ.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	sèche /sɛʃ/	sèches /sɛʃ/	sèche /sɛʃ/	séchions /se.ʃjɔ̃/	séchiez /se.ʃje/	sèchent /sɛʃ/
	imperfect2	séchasse /se.ʃas/	séchasses /se.ʃas/	séchât /se.ʃa/	séchassions /se.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	séchassiez /se.ʃa.sje/	séchassent /se.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	sèche /sɛʃ/	—	séchons /se.ʃɔ̃/	séchez /se.ʃe/	—
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

• assécher
• dessécher
• sèche
• sèche-cheveux
• sécheresse
• sécheuse
• séchoir

Related terms

• dessiccation
• sec

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• chères

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Middle High German sicher, from Old High German sihhur, from Proto-West Germanic *sikur, from Latin sēcūrus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzeχer/, [ˈzəɕɐ]

Adjective

sécher (masculine sécheren, neuter séchert, comparative méi sécher, superlative am séchersten)

1. sure, certain, confident
2. safe, secure

Declension

Declension of sécher

		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		hien ass sécher	si ass sécher	et ass sécher	si si(nn) sécher
nominative / accusative	attributive and/or after determiner	sécheren	sécher	séchert	sécher
	independent without determiner			sécheres	sécherer
dative	after any declined word	sécheren	sécherer	sécheren	sécheren
	as first declined word	sécherem		sécherem

Adverb

sécher

1. surely, certainly