combattre
French
Etymology
From Middle French combatre, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, present active infinitive of *combattō, from Latin cum + battuō, from Gaulish.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔ̃.batʁ/
audio (file)
Verb
combattre
- to fight, to combat (against)
- to oppose, to struggle
Conjugation
This verb is conjugated like battre. That means it is conjugated like vendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs), except that instead of *combatt and *combatts, it has the forms combat and combats. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.
Conjugation of combattre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | combattre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | combattant /kɔ̃.ba.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | combattu /kɔ̃.ba.ty/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | combats /kɔ̃.ba/ | combats /kɔ̃.ba/ | combat /kɔ̃.ba/ | combattons /kɔ̃.ba.tɔ̃/ | combattez /kɔ̃.ba.te/ | combattent /kɔ̃.bat/ |
| imperfect | combattais /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/ | combattais /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/ | combattait /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/ | combattions /kɔ̃.ba.tjɔ̃/ | combattiez /kɔ̃.ba.tje/ | combattaient /kɔ̃.ba.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | combattis /kɔ̃.ba.ti/ | combattis /kɔ̃.ba.ti/ | combattit /kɔ̃.ba.ti/ | combattîmes /kɔ̃.ba.tim/ | combattîtes /kɔ̃.ba.tit/ | combattirent /kɔ̃.ba.tiʁ/ | |
| future | combattrai /kɔ̃.ba.tʁe/ | combattras /kɔ̃.ba.tʁa/ | combattra /kɔ̃.ba.tʁa/ | combattrons /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɔ̃/ | combattrez /kɔ̃.ba.tʁe/ | combattront /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | combattrais /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/ | combattrais /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/ | combattrait /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/ | combattrions /kɔ̃.ba.tʁi.jɔ̃/ | combattriez /kɔ̃.ba.tʁi.je/ | combattraient /kɔ̃.ba.tʁɛ/ | |
| (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 | combatte /kɔ̃.bat/ | combattes /kɔ̃.bat/ | combatte /kɔ̃.bat/ | combattions /kɔ̃.ba.tjɔ̃/ | combattiez /kɔ̃.ba.tje/ | combattent /kɔ̃.bat/ |
| imperfect2 | combattisse /kɔ̃.ba.tis/ | combattisses /kɔ̃.ba.tis/ | combattît /kɔ̃.ba.ti/ | combattissions /kɔ̃.ba.ti.sjɔ̃/ | combattissiez /kɔ̃.ba.ti.sje/ | combattissent /kɔ̃.ba.tis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | combats /kɔ̃.ba/ | — | combattons /kɔ̃.ba.tɔ̃/ | combattez /kɔ̃.ba.te/ | — | |
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms
- combat
- combattant
- combattre le feu par le feu
- combattre le mal par le mal
Related terms
- battre
Further reading
- “combattre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.