ternir
French
Etymology
Inherited from Middle French ternir, from Old French ternir (“to make dim, make wan”), borrowed from Old High German *ternen, tarnen, from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to cover up, conceal, hide”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɛʁ.niʁ/
Audio: (file)
Verb
ternir
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 ternir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | ternir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | ternissant /tɛʁ.ni.sɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | terni /tɛʁ.ni/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | ternis /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternis /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternit /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternissons /tɛʁ.ni.sɔ̃/ |
ternissez /tɛʁ.ni.se/ |
ternissent /tɛʁ.nis/ |
| imperfect | ternissais /tɛʁ.ni.sɛ/ |
ternissais /tɛʁ.ni.sɛ/ |
ternissait /tɛʁ.ni.sɛ/ |
ternissions /tɛʁ.ni.sjɔ̃/ |
ternissiez /tɛʁ.ni.sje/ |
ternissaient /tɛʁ.ni.sɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | ternis /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternis /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternit /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternîmes /tɛʁ.nim/ |
ternîtes /tɛʁ.nit/ |
ternirent /tɛʁ.niʁ/ | |
| future | ternirai /tɛʁ.ni.ʁe/ |
terniras /tɛʁ.ni.ʁa/ |
ternira /tɛʁ.ni.ʁa/ |
ternirons /tɛʁ.ni.ʁɔ̃/ |
ternirez /tɛʁ.ni.ʁe/ |
terniront /tɛʁ.ni.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | ternirais /tɛʁ.ni.ʁɛ/ |
ternirais /tɛʁ.ni.ʁɛ/ |
ternirait /tɛʁ.ni.ʁɛ/ |
ternirions /tɛʁ.ni.ʁjɔ̃/ |
terniriez /tɛʁ.ni.ʁje/ |
terniraient /tɛʁ.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 | ternisse /tɛʁ.nis/ |
ternisses /tɛʁ.nis/ |
ternisse /tɛʁ.nis/ |
ternissions /tɛʁ.ni.sjɔ̃/ |
ternissiez /tɛʁ.ni.sje/ |
ternissent /tɛʁ.nis/ |
| imperfect2 | ternisse /tɛʁ.nis/ |
ternisses /tɛʁ.nis/ |
ternît /tɛʁ.ni/ |
ternissions /tɛʁ.ni.sjɔ̃/ |
ternissiez /tɛʁ.ni.sje/ |
ternissent /tɛʁ.nis/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | ternis /tɛʁ.ni/ |
— | ternissons /tɛʁ.ni.sɔ̃/ |
ternissez /tɛʁ.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
Further reading
- “ternir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.