virer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *virāre, probably from Latin vibrāre (in which case it is a doublet of vibrer) or possibly from an alteration of gȳrō. Compare Italian virare, Spanish virar. Or, possibly from Gaulish *viru (“to deviate, veer off”), itself derived from viros (“round, crooked”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.ʁe/
• Homophones: virai, viré, virée, virées, virés, virez

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

virer

1. (intransitive) to bear, veer (change direction slightly)

   Virer à gauche. ― Bear left.

2. (intransitive) to turn into, become

   La situation va virer au drame. ― The situation is going to turn into a drama.

3. (transitive, banking) to transfer (money, from one account to another)
4. (transitive, colloquial) to get rid of, fire, shitcan

   Tu pourrais te faire virer pour ça. ― You could get yourself fired for that.

Conjugation

Conjugation of virer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	virer
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	virant /vi.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		viré /vi.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vire /viʁ/	vires /viʁ/	vire /viʁ/	virons /vi.ʁɔ̃/	virez /vi.ʁe/	virent /viʁ/
	imperfect	virais /vi.ʁɛ/	virais /vi.ʁɛ/	virait /vi.ʁɛ/	virions /vi.ʁjɔ̃/	viriez /vi.ʁje/	viraient /vi.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	virai /vi.ʁe/	viras /vi.ʁa/	vira /vi.ʁa/	virâmes /vi.ʁam/	virâtes /vi.ʁat/	virèrent /vi.ʁɛʁ/
	future	virerai /vi.ʁə.ʁe/	vireras /vi.ʁə.ʁa/	virera /vi.ʁə.ʁa/	virerons /vi.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	virerez /vi.ʁə.ʁe/	vireront /vi.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	virerais /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerais /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerait /vi.ʁə.ʁɛ/	virerions /vi.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	vireriez /vi.ʁə.ʁje/	vireraient /vi.ʁə.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	vire /viʁ/	vires /viʁ/	vire /viʁ/	virions /vi.ʁjɔ̃/	viriez /vi.ʁje/	virent /viʁ/
	imperfect2	virasse /vi.ʁas/	virasses /vi.ʁas/	virât /vi.ʁa/	virassions /vi.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	virassiez /vi.ʁa.sje/	virassent /vi.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vire /viʁ/	—	virons /vi.ʁɔ̃/	virez /vi.ʁe/	—
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• virage
• virement
• virer de bord
• virer une brosse

 

Descendants

• → English: veer

Further reading

• “virer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• river