tonner

English

Etymology

From ton +‎ -er or tonne +‎ -er.

Noun

tonner (plural tonners)

1. (in combination) A vehicle or other object having a specified tonnage, or weighing a specified number of tons.
   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎^[1]:

     There came a welcome interruption, however, when I heard the roar of wheels and rejoiced to see my Leyland three-tonner come rolling and heaving over the grass, heaped up with tools and sections of tubing, and bearing my foreman, Peters, and a very grimy assistant in front.

Anagrams

• Renton

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French, from Latin tonāre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

tonner (impersonal)

1. (meteorology, impersonal) to thunder
2. to thunder (to make a noise like thunder)

Conjugation

Conjugation of tonner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tonner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tonnant /tɔ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tonné /tɔ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tonne /tɔn/	tonnes /tɔn/	tonne /tɔn/	tonnons /tɔ.nɔ̃/	tonnez /tɔ.ne/	tonnent /tɔn/
	imperfect	tonnais /tɔ.nɛ/	tonnais /tɔ.nɛ/	tonnait /tɔ.nɛ/	tonnions /tɔ.njɔ̃/	tonniez /tɔ.nje/	tonnaient /tɔ.nɛ/
	past historic2	tonnai /tɔ.ne/	tonnas /tɔ.na/	tonna /tɔ.na/	tonnâmes /tɔ.nam/	tonnâtes /tɔ.nat/	tonnèrent /tɔ.nɛʁ/
	future	tonnerai /tɔn.ʁe/	tonneras /tɔn.ʁa/	tonnera /tɔn.ʁa/	tonnerons /tɔn.ʁɔ̃/	tonnerez /tɔn.ʁe/	tonneront /tɔn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tonnerais /tɔn.ʁɛ/	tonnerais /tɔn.ʁɛ/	tonnerait /tɔn.ʁɛ/	tonnerions /tɔ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	tonneriez /tɔ.nə.ʁje/	tonneraient /tɔn.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	tonne /tɔn/	tonnes /tɔn/	tonne /tɔn/	tonnions /tɔ.njɔ̃/	tonniez /tɔ.nje/	tonnent /tɔn/
	imperfect2	tonnasse /tɔ.nas/	tonnasses /tɔ.nas/	tonnât /tɔ.na/	tonnassions /tɔ.na.sjɔ̃/	tonnassiez /tɔ.na.sje/	tonnassent /tɔ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tonne /tɔn/	—	tonnons /tɔ.nɔ̃/	tonnez /tɔ.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

• tonnerre

Further reading

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