promettre
French
Etymology
From Old French prometre, an early borrowing from Latin promitto, promittere, adapted to or based on French mettre.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pʁɔ.mɛtʁ/
audio (file)
Verb
promettre
- to promise
- 1856, Francis Linossier, Les mystères de Lyon, p. 181
- S'il ne dépend que de moi, je vous promets de vous y faire arriver promptement.
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- Je te promets que je te rendrai ton argent avant dimanche. ― I promise I'll give you your money back before Sunday.
- J'ai promis à mon père de ne rien dire à ma mère. ― I promised my dad not to tell my mom.
- (reflexive) to promise oneself
- 1856, Francis Linossier, Les mystères de Lyon, p. 181
- (intransitive) to be promising, to be hopeful
- C'est une athlète qui promet. ― She is a promising athlete.
- Ça promet ! ― That bodes well!
- (ditransitive reflexive) to hope (for)
- 2018, Zaz, on s'en remet jamais
- Est-ce que tout ce que l'on se promet a pu se perdre dans un désert ? Ne reste-t-il que des poussières une fois que l'amour est absent.
- Could everything we hope for have been lost in a desert? Nothing but dust remains once the love is lost.
- 2018, Zaz, on s'en remet jamais
- (reflexive) to resolve (to)
Conjugation
This verb is conjugated like mettre. That means it is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is promis, not *promettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with promi-, not *prometti-.
Conjugation of promettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | promettre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | promettant /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɑ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | promis /pʁɔ.mi/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/ | promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/ | promet /pʁɔ.mɛ/ | promettons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɔ̃/ | promettez /pʁɔ.mɛ.te/ or /pʁɔ.me.te/ | promettent /pʁɔ.mɛt/ |
| imperfect | promettais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/ | promettais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/ | promettait /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/ | promettions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tjɔ̃/ | promettiez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tje/ or /pʁɔ.me.tje/ | promettaient /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | promis /pʁɔ.mi/ | promis /pʁɔ.mi/ | promit /pʁɔ.mi/ | promîmes /pʁɔ.mim/ | promîtes /pʁɔ.mit/ | promirent /pʁɔ.miʁ/ | |
| future | promettrai /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁe/ | promettras /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁa/ | promettra /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁa/ | promettrons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɔ̃/ | promettrez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁe/ | promettront /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | promettrais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/ | promettrais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/ | promettrait /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/ | promettrions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁi.jɔ̃/ | promettriez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁi.je/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁi.je/ | promettraient /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.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 | promette /pʁɔ.mɛt/ | promettes /pʁɔ.mɛt/ | promette /pʁɔ.mɛt/ | promettions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tjɔ̃/ | promettiez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tje/ or /pʁɔ.me.tje/ | promettent /pʁɔ.mɛt/ |
| imperfect2 | promisse /pʁɔ.mis/ | promisses /pʁɔ.mis/ | promît /pʁɔ.mi/ | promissions /pʁɔ.mi.sjɔ̃/ | promissiez /pʁɔ.mi.sje/ | promissent /pʁɔ.mis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/ | — | promettons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɔ̃/ | promettez /pʁɔ.mɛ.te/ or /pʁɔ.me.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
- chose promise, chose due
- ne pas promettre poires molles
- promesse
- promettre monts et merveilles
- prometteur
- promis juré
- promis, juré, craché
- terre promise
Related terms
- mettre
Further reading
- “promettre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Norman
Etymology
From Old French prometre, an early borrowing from Latin prōmittō, prōmittere (“send forth; promise”).
Verb
promettre
- (Jersey) to promise