suffire

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French sufire, susfire et al., from Latin sufficiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.fiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

suffire

1. to be enough, to suffice

Usage notes

• When followed by que, suffire gives the subjunctive mood.
• The past participle of suffire is always invariable, even when used pronominally.

Conjugation

Conjugation of suffire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	suffire
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	suffisant /sy.fi.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		suffi /sy.fi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	suffis /sy.fi/	suffis /sy.fi/	suffit /sy.fi/	suffisons /sy.fi.zɔ̃/	suffisez /sy.fi.ze/	suffisent /sy.fiz/
	imperfect	suffisais /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisais /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisait /sy.fi.zɛ/	suffisions /sy.fi.zjɔ̃/	suffisiez /sy.fi.zje/	suffisaient /sy.fi.zɛ/
	past historic2	suffis /sy.fi/	suffis /sy.fi/	suffit /sy.fi/	suffîmes /sy.fim/	suffîtes /sy.fit/	suffirent /sy.fiʁ/
	future	suffirai /sy.fi.ʁe/	suffiras /sy.fi.ʁa/	suffira /sy.fi.ʁa/	suffirons /sy.fi.ʁɔ̃/	suffirez /sy.fi.ʁe/	suffiront /sy.fi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	suffirais /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirais /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirait /sy.fi.ʁɛ/	suffirions /sy.fi.ʁjɔ̃/	suffiriez /sy.fi.ʁje/	suffiraient /sy.fi.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	suffise /sy.fiz/	suffises /sy.fiz/	suffise /sy.fiz/	suffisions /sy.fi.zjɔ̃/	suffisiez /sy.fi.zje/	suffisent /sy.fiz/
	imperfect2	suffisse /sy.fis/	suffisses /sy.fis/	suffît /sy.fi/	suffissions /sy.fi.sjɔ̃/	suffissiez /sy.fi.sje/	suffissent /sy.fis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	suffis /sy.fi/	—	suffisons /sy.fi.zɔ̃/	suffisez /sy.fi.ze/	—
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

• à chaque jour suffit sa peine
• ça suffit

Related terms

• suffisamment
• suffisance
• suffisant

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

suffīre

1. inflection of suffiō:
   1. present active infinitive
   2. second-person singular present passive imperative/indicative