serrer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French serrer, from Vulgar Latin *serrāre (“close, shut”), from Late Latin serāre (“fasten, bolt”), from Latin sera (“bolt, crossbar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ.ʁe/ ~ /se.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

serrer

1. (transitive) to tighten (a screw, a knot)

   Doucement ! Ça ne sert à rien de trop serrer cette vis. ― Gently! It's no use to tighten this screw too much.

   Ton nœud de cravate n’est pas assez serré. ― Your tie's knot isn't tightened enough.

2. (transitive) to shake (hands)

   J’ai refusé de lui serrer la main. ― I refused to shake his/her hand.

3. (transitive) to squeeze

   Il lui serra le bras si fort qu’elle en garda une trace pendant trois jours. ― He squeezed her arm so hard that she had a mark on it for three days.

4. (transitive) to hug, to stay close to

   serrer la côte ― to hug the shore, to hug the coastline

5. (reflexive) to squeeze

   Ils se sont serrés pour lui faire une place.

   They squeezed together to make room for him.

6. (pronominal) to shake (hands)

   Les jeunes hommes d’affaires se sont serré la main. ― The young businessmen shook each other's hands.

7. (slang, transitive) to seduce; to flirt with
8. (slang, law enforcement, transitive) to pinch (to arrest, apprehend someone)

   Synonyms: appréhender, arrêter

Conjugation

Conjugation of serrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	serrer
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	serrant /sɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /se.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		serré /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	serre /sɛʁ/	serres /sɛʁ/	serre /sɛʁ/	serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/	serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/	serrent /sɛʁ/
	imperfect	serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrait /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/	serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/	serraient /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	serrai /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/	serras /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serra /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serrâmes /sɛ.ʁam/ or /se.ʁam/	serrâtes /sɛ.ʁat/ or /se.ʁat/	serrèrent /sɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /se.ʁɛʁ/
	future	serrerai /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/	serreras /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/	serrera /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/	serrerons /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	serrerez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/	serreront /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerait /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerions /sɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	serreriez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /se.ʁə.ʁje/	serreraient /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.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	serre /sɛʁ/	serres /sɛʁ/	serre /sɛʁ/	serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/	serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/	serrent /sɛʁ/
	imperfect2	serrasse /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/	serrasses /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/	serrât /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serrassions /sɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	serrassiez /sɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /se.ʁa.sje/	serrassent /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	serre /sɛʁ/	—	serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/	serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.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

• desserrer
• resserrer
• serrage
• serre-joint
• serre-livres
• serre-nœud
• serrement
• serre-tête
• serrer la main
• serrer la vis
• serrer les dents
• se serrer la ceinture
• se serrer les coudes
• serrer les rangs

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

serrer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of serrō