suffire

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French sufire, susfire et al., from Latin sufficiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.fiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

suffire

1. to be enough, to suffice

Usage notes

• When followed by que, suffire gives the subjunctive mood.
• The past participle of suffire is always invariable, even when used pronominally.

Conjugation

Conjugation of suffire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	suffire
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	suffisant /sy.fi.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		suffi /sy.fi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	suffis /sy.fi/	suffis /sy.fi/	suffit /sy.fi/	suffisons /sy.fi.zɔ̃/	suffisez /sy.fi.ze/	suffisent /sy.fiz/
	imperfect	suffisais /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisais /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisait /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisions /sy.fi.zjɔ̃/	suffisiez /sy.fi.zje/	suffisaient /sy.fi.zɛ/
	past historic2	suffis /sy.fi/	suffis /sy.fi/	suffit /sy.fi/	suffîmes /sy.fim/	suffîtes /sy.fit/	suffirent /sy.fiʁ/
	future	suffirai /sy.fi.ʁe/	suffiras /sy.fi.ʁa/	suffira /sy.fi.ʁa/	suffirons /sy.fi.ʁɔ̃/	suffirez /sy.fi.ʁe/	suffiront /sy.fi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	suffirais /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirais /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirait /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirions /sy.fi.ʁjɔ̃/	suffiriez /sy.fi.ʁje/	suffiraient /sy.fi.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	suffise /sy.fiz/	suffises /sy.fiz/	suffise /sy.fiz/	suffisions /sy.fi.zjɔ̃/	suffisiez /sy.fi.zje/	suffisent /sy.fiz/
	imperfect2	suffisse /sy.fis/	suffisses /sy.fis/	suffît /sy.fi/	suffissions /sy.fi.sjɔ̃/	suffissiez /sy.fi.sje/	suffissent /sy.fis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	suffis /sy.fi/	—	suffisons /sy.fi.zɔ̃/	suffisez /sy.fi.ze/	—
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

• à chaque jour suffit sa peine
• ça suffit

Related terms

• suffisamment
• suffisance
• suffisant

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

suffīre

1. inflection of suffiō:
   1. present active infinitive
   2. second-person singular present passive imperative/indicative