lésiner
French
Etymology
From lésine (“stinginess”) + -er.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /le.zi.ne/
Audio: (file)
Verb
lésiner
- (intransitive) to skimp, to overly limit one's spending, to be frugal to an excessive degree
- 2025 June, Benoît Bréville, “Tous influenceurs !”, in Le Monde diplomatique, →ISSN, page 21:
- Pour parvenir à ce résultat, la journaliste ne lésine pas sur l'incarnation. Ses abonnés n'ignorent donc rien de son goût de la randonnée, de ses préférences cinématographiques, de ses brunchs dominicaux entre amies.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Conjugation
Conjugation of lésiner (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | lésiner | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | lésinant /le.zi.nɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | lésiné /le.zi.ne/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | lésine /le.zin/ |
lésines /le.zin/ |
lésine /le.zin/ |
lésinons /le.zi.nɔ̃/ |
lésinez /le.zi.ne/ |
lésinent /le.zin/ |
| imperfect | lésinais /le.zi.nɛ/ |
lésinais /le.zi.nɛ/ |
lésinait /le.zi.nɛ/ |
lésinions /le.zi.njɔ̃/ |
lésiniez /le.zi.nje/ |
lésinaient /le.zi.nɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | lésinai /le.zi.ne/ |
lésinas /le.zi.na/ |
lésina /le.zi.na/ |
lésinâmes /le.zi.nam/ |
lésinâtes /le.zi.nat/ |
lésinèrent /le.zi.nɛʁ/ | |
| future | lésinerai /le.zin.ʁe/ |
lésineras /le.zin.ʁa/ |
lésinera /le.zin.ʁa/ |
lésinerons /le.zin.ʁɔ̃/ |
lésinerez /le.zin.ʁe/ |
lésineront /le.zin.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | lésinerais /le.zin.ʁɛ/ |
lésinerais /le.zin.ʁɛ/ |
lésinerait /le.zin.ʁɛ/ |
lésinerions /le.zi.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
lésineriez /le.zi.nə.ʁje/ |
lésineraient /le.zin.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 | lésine /le.zin/ |
lésines /le.zin/ |
lésine /le.zin/ |
lésinions /le.zi.njɔ̃/ |
lésiniez /le.zi.nje/ |
lésinent /le.zin/ |
| imperfect2 | lésinasse /le.zi.nas/ |
lésinasses /le.zi.nas/ |
lésinât /le.zi.na/ |
lésinassions /le.zi.na.sjɔ̃/ |
lésinassiez /le.zi.na.sje/ |
lésinassent /le.zi.nas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | lésine /le.zin/ |
— | lésinons /le.zi.nɔ̃/ |
lésinez /le.zi.ne/ |
— | |
| 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
Further reading
- “lésiner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.