sévir
See also: sevir
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin saevīre.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /se.viʁ/
Audio (file)
Verb
sévir
- (intransitive) to crack down, clamp down
- Il faut sévir contre cet abus. ― We must crack down on this abuse.
- Les lois ne sauraient trop sévir contre ce genre de crimes. ― The laws cannot be harsh enough on this sort of crime.
- (intransitive, of war, storm, etc.) to rage
- (intransitive, of disease, poverty, etc.) to be rife
- 1931, Naudeau, Ludovic, La France se regarde : le Problème de la natalité, Paris: Librairie Hachette:
- Faut-il s'étonner si, en une population aussi entichée de ses habitudes, la mortalité puerpérale et la mortalité infantile sévissent au delà des moyennes connues !
- Should we be surprised that, given a population so besotted with its old habits, puerperal mortality and infantile mortality are rife beyond known averages?
-
- (intransitive, of policy, belief, etc.) to hold sway
- 2021 July 3, “La France reprend sa coopération avec l’armée malienne”, in Le Monde:
- « La France reste pleinement engagée, avec ses alliés européens et américains, aux côtés des pays sahéliens et des missions internationales », pour combattre les groupes djihadistes qui sévissent au Sahel, a conclu, vendredi, le ministère des armées dans son communiqué.
- "France remains fully engaged, along with its European and American allies, at the side of the Sahel countries and international missions" to combat the jihadist groups that hold sway in the Sahel, the Army Minister concluded Friday in her communiqué.
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Conjugation
This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.
Conjugation of sévir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | sévir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | sévissant /se.vi.sɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | sévi /se.vi/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | sévis /se.vi/ | sévis /se.vi/ | sévit /se.vi/ | sévissons /se.vi.sɔ̃/ | sévissez /se.vi.se/ | sévissent /se.vis/ |
| imperfect | sévissais /se.vi.sɛ/ | sévissais /se.vi.sɛ/ | sévissait /se.vi.sɛ/ | sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/ | sévissiez /se.vi.sje/ | sévissaient /se.vi.sɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | sévis /se.vi/ | sévis /se.vi/ | sévit /se.vi/ | sévîmes /se.vim/ | sévîtes /se.vit/ | sévirent /se.viʁ/ | |
| future | sévirai /se.vi.ʁe/ | séviras /se.vi.ʁa/ | sévira /se.vi.ʁa/ | sévirons /se.vi.ʁɔ̃/ | sévirez /se.vi.ʁe/ | séviront /se.vi.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | sévirais /se.vi.ʁɛ/ | sévirais /se.vi.ʁɛ/ | sévirait /se.vi.ʁɛ/ | sévirions /se.vi.ʁjɔ̃/ | séviriez /se.vi.ʁje/ | séviraient /se.vi.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 | sévisse /se.vis/ | sévisses /se.vis/ | sévisse /se.vis/ | sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/ | sévissiez /se.vi.sje/ | sévissent /se.vis/ |
| imperfect2 | sévisse /se.vis/ | sévisses /se.vis/ | sévît /se.vi/ | sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/ | sévissiez /se.vi.sje/ | sévissent /se.vis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | sévis /se.vi/ | — | sévissons /se.vi.sɔ̃/ | sévissez /se.vi.se/ | — | |
| 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). | |||||||
Related terms
- sévices
Further reading
- “sévir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- ivres, revis, rives, rivés, servi, vires, virés, viser