embrouiller

French

Etymology

From en- ‎ brouiller.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.bʁu.je/

• Audio:

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Verb

embrouiller

1. to entangle

   Synonym: emberlificoter

2. (figuratively, reflexive) to make mistakes, get confused (while performing a complex task)

   Synonyms: se prendre les pieds dans le tapis, s’emmêler les crayons, s’emmêler les pinceaux

   Hypernym: se tromper

   Il s’était embrouillé dans ses calculs en vérifiant les stocks. ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

3. (informal) to bamboozle, to confuse
4. (slang) to get in a fight

Conjugation

Conjugation of embrouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	embrouiller
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	embrouillant /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		embrouillé /ɑ̃.bʁu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	embrouille /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouilles /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouille /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouillons /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɔ̃/	embrouillez /ɑ̃.bʁu.je/	embrouillent /ɑ̃.bʁuj/
	imperfect	embrouillais /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɛ/	embrouillais /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɛ/	embrouillait /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɛ/	embrouillions /ɑ̃.bʁuj.jɔ̃/	embrouilliez /ɑ̃.bʁuj.je/	embrouillaient /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɛ/
	past historic2	embrouillai /ɑ̃.bʁu.je/	embrouillas /ɑ̃.bʁu.ja/	embrouilla /ɑ̃.bʁu.ja/	embrouillâmes /ɑ̃.bʁu.jam/	embrouillâtes /ɑ̃.bʁu.jat/	embrouillèrent /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɛʁ/
	future	embrouillerai /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁe/	embrouilleras /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁa/	embrouillera /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁa/	embrouillerons /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁɔ̃/	embrouillerez /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁe/	embrouilleront /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	embrouillerais /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁɛ/	embrouillerais /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁɛ/	embrouillerait /ɑ̃.bʁuj.ʁɛ/	embrouillerions /ɑ̃.bʁu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	embrouilleriez /ɑ̃.bʁu.jə.ʁje/	embrouilleraient /ɑ̃.bʁuj.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	embrouille /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouilles /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouille /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	embrouillions /ɑ̃.bʁuj.jɔ̃/	embrouilliez /ɑ̃.bʁuj.je/	embrouillent /ɑ̃.bʁuj/
	imperfect2	embrouillasse /ɑ̃.bʁu.jas/	embrouillasses /ɑ̃.bʁu.jas/	embrouillât /ɑ̃.bʁu.ja/	embrouillassions /ɑ̃.bʁu.ja.sjɔ̃/	embrouillassiez /ɑ̃.bʁu.ja.sje/	embrouillassent /ɑ̃.bʁu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	embrouille /ɑ̃.bʁuj/	—	embrouillons /ɑ̃.bʁu.jɔ̃/	embrouillez /ɑ̃.bʁu.je/	—
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

• embrouillamini
• embrouille

 

Descendants

• → Catalan: embrollar
• → English: embroil
• → Spanish: embrollar

Further reading

• “embrouiller” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.
• “embrouiller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.