bénir
See also: benir
French
Etymology
From Old French beneïr, inherited from Latin benedīcere, present active infinive of benedicō.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /be.niʁ/
Audio (file)
Verb
bénir
- to bless (invoke or give supernatural assistance)
Usage notes
- This verb has two past participles, regular béni and irregular bénit. Only the former is used in perfect tenses. Otherwise, i.e. in the passive and in adjectival use, béni is used for “blessed”, and bénit is used for “consecrated”.
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 bénir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | bénir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | bénissant /be.ni.sɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | béni /be.ni/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | bénis /be.ni/ | bénis /be.ni/ | bénit /be.ni/ | bénissons /be.ni.sɔ̃/ | bénissez /be.ni.se/ | bénissent /be.nis/ |
| imperfect | bénissais /be.ni.sɛ/ | bénissais /be.ni.sɛ/ | bénissait /be.ni.sɛ/ | bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/ | bénissiez /be.ni.sje/ | bénissaient /be.ni.sɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | bénis /be.ni/ | bénis /be.ni/ | bénit /be.ni/ | bénîmes /be.nim/ | bénîtes /be.nit/ | bénirent /be.niʁ/ | |
| future | bénirai /be.ni.ʁe/ | béniras /be.ni.ʁa/ | bénira /be.ni.ʁa/ | bénirons /be.ni.ʁɔ̃/ | bénirez /be.ni.ʁe/ | béniront /be.ni.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | bénirais /be.ni.ʁɛ/ | bénirais /be.ni.ʁɛ/ | bénirait /be.ni.ʁɛ/ | bénirions /be.ni.ʁjɔ̃/ | béniriez /be.ni.ʁje/ | béniraient /be.ni.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 | bénisse /be.nis/ | bénisses /be.nis/ | bénisse /be.nis/ | bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/ | bénissiez /be.ni.sje/ | bénissent /be.nis/ |
| imperfect2 | bénisse /be.nis/ | bénisses /be.nis/ | bénît /be.ni/ | bénissions /be.ni.sjɔ̃/ | bénissiez /be.ni.sje/ | bénissent /be.nis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | bénis /be.ni/ | — | bénissons /be.ni.sɔ̃/ | bénissez /be.ni.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
- bénédiction
- benoît, Benoît
- dire
- maudire
Further reading
- “bénir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.