abattre
French
Etymology
From Middle French abattre, from Old French abatre, from Vulgar Latin *abbattō, from Latin ad- + battuō, ultimately from Gaulish.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.batʁ/
audio (file)
Verb
abattre
- to butcher; to slaughter for meat
- to shoot dead
- to cut down (a tree)
- to destroy or demolish (a wall)
- (reflexive) to fall down, especially of tall things, such as trees
- (takes a reflexive pronoun) to descend upon with violence or furor
- 2021 December 16, Cécile Ducourtieux, “Au Royaume-Uni, la progression d’Omicron est « stupéfiante, jamais observée jusqu’à présent »”, in Le Monde:
- « Fulgurante », « phénoménale » ou « stupéfiante » : les conseillers scientifiques du gouvernement britannique n’ont pas de mots assez forts pour qualifier la vague Omicron qui s’abat sur le Royaume-Uni.
- "Striking", "phenomenal", or "stupefying": the scientific advisers to the British government do not have words strong enough to describe the Omicron wave which descending upon the United Kingdom.
-
- (takes a reflexive pronoun, of lightning) to strike
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 *abatt and *abatts, it has the forms [[{stem}bat#French|{stem}bat]] and [[{stem}bats#French|{stem}bats]]. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.
Conjugation of abattre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | abattre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | abattant /a.ba.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | abattu /a.ba.ty/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | abats /a.ba/ | abats /a.ba/ | abat /a.ba/ | abattons /a.ba.tɔ̃/ | abattez /a.ba.te/ | abattent /a.bat/ |
| imperfect | abattais /a.ba.tɛ/ | abattais /a.ba.tɛ/ | abattait /a.ba.tɛ/ | abattions /a.ba.tjɔ̃/ | abattiez /a.ba.tje/ | abattaient /a.ba.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | abattis /a.ba.ti/ | abattis /a.ba.ti/ | abattit /a.ba.ti/ | abattîmes /a.ba.tim/ | abattîtes /a.ba.tit/ | abattirent /a.ba.tiʁ/ | |
| future | abattrai /a.ba.tʁe/ | abattras /a.ba.tʁa/ | abattra /a.ba.tʁa/ | abattrons /a.ba.tʁɔ̃/ | abattrez /a.ba.tʁe/ | abattront /a.ba.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | abattrais /a.ba.tʁɛ/ | abattrais /a.ba.tʁɛ/ | abattrait /a.ba.tʁɛ/ | abattrions /a.ba.tʁi.jɔ̃/ | abattriez /a.ba.tʁi.je/ | abattraient /a.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 | abatte /a.bat/ | abattes /a.bat/ | abatte /a.bat/ | abattions /a.ba.tjɔ̃/ | abattiez /a.ba.tje/ | abattent /a.bat/ |
| imperfect2 | abattisse /a.ba.tis/ | abattisses /a.ba.tis/ | abattît /a.ba.ti/ | abattissions /a.ba.ti.sjɔ̃/ | abattissiez /a.ba.ti.sje/ | abattissent /a.ba.tis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | abats /a.ba/ | — | abattons /a.ba.tɔ̃/ | abattez /a.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
- abat-jour
- abattable
- abattis
- abattoir
- abattre son jeu
- abattu
- à bride abattue
- petite pluie abat grand vent
Related terms
- battre
Further reading
- “abattre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- baratte, ébattra, rabatte
Norman
Etymology
From Old French abatre, from Vulgar Latin *abbattō, *abbattere, from Latin battuō from Gaulish [Term?].
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.batr/
Verb
abattre
- (Jersey) to knock down
References
- Spence, N.C.W. (1960). Glossary of Jersey-French. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 39.