blêmir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French blêmir, from Old French blemir, blesmir, from Frankish *blesmijan, *blasmijan (“to grow pale; make pale”), from Proto-Germanic *blasaz (“shining, white, fair, pale”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, be white”). Cognate with Old High German blas (“white; having a blaze”) and English blaze.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /blɛ.miʁ/ ~ /ble.miʁ/
Audio: (file)

Verb

blêmir

to whiten; to become pale; to blanch

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 blêmir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir past participle
infinitive	simple	blêmir
present participle or gerund¹	simple	blêmissant /blɛ.mi.sɑ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		blêmi /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmit /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmissons /blɛ.mi.sɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɔ̃/	blêmissez /blɛ.mi.se/ or /ble.mi.se/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
	imperfect	blêmissais /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissais /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissait /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissaient /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/
	past historic²	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmit /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmîmes /blɛ.mim/ or /ble.mim/	blêmîtes /blɛ.mit/ or /ble.mit/	blêmirent /blɛ.miʁ/ or /ble.miʁ/
	future	blêmirai /blɛ.mi.ʁe/ or /ble.mi.ʁe/	blêmiras /blɛ.mi.ʁa/ or /ble.mi.ʁa/	blêmira /blɛ.mi.ʁa/ or /ble.mi.ʁa/	blêmirons /blɛ.mi.ʁɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁɔ̃/	blêmirez /blɛ.mi.ʁe/ or /ble.mi.ʁe/	blêmiront /blɛ.mi.ʁɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	blêmirais /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirais /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirait /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirions /blɛ.mi.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁjɔ̃/	blêmiriez /blɛ.mi.ʁje/ or /ble.mi.ʁje/	blêmiraient /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.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	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisses /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisses /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmît /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	—	blêmissons /blɛ.mi.sɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɔ̃/	blêmissez /blɛ.mi.se/ or /ble.mi.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: 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).