lâcher
See also: Lächer
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Middle French lascher, from Old French laschier, from Vulgar Latin *lassicāre < *laxicāre, frequentative of Latin laxāre (whence French laisser).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
lâcher
- to release; to loosen; to let go
- 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XXXIX, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et Cie, éditeurs, […], →OCLC:
- Le fils de Barberousse était si cruel et traitait si mal ses captifs, que ceux qui occupaient les bancs de sa chiourme ne virent pas plutôt la galère la Louve se diriger sur eux et prendre de l’avance, qu’ils lâchèrent tous à la fois les rames, et saisirent leur capitaine, qui leur criait du gaillard d’arrière de ramer plus vite ; puis se le passant de banc en banc, de la poupe à la proue, ils lui donnèrent tant de coups de dents, qu’avant d’avoir atteint le mât, il avait rendu son âme aux enfers....
- The son of Barbarossa was so cruel and treated his captives so badly, that those who occupied the benches of his galley no sooner saw the galley la Louve steering to them and advancing, that they let go of the oars all at once, and seized their captain, who yelled to them from the aftcastle to row faster; then passing him to each other from bench to bench, from the poop to the prow, they bit him so much, that before having reached the mast, he had rendered his soul to Hell....
- (figurative) to abandon, to let go
- to chicken out
- (mechanics) to fail
Conjugation edit
Conjugation of lâcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | lâcher | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | lâchant /la.ʃɑ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | lâché /la.ʃe/ or /lɑ.ʃe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | lâche /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâches /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâche /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâchons /la.ʃɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃɔ̃/ |
lâchez /la.ʃe/ or /lɑ.ʃe/ |
lâchent /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
| imperfect | lâchais /la.ʃɛ/ or /lɑ.ʃɛ/ |
lâchais /la.ʃɛ/ or /lɑ.ʃɛ/ |
lâchait /la.ʃɛ/ or /lɑ.ʃɛ/ |
lâchions /la.ʃjɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃjɔ̃/ |
lâchiez /la.ʃje/ or /lɑ.ʃje/ |
lâchaient /la.ʃɛ/ or /lɑ.ʃɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | lâchai /la.ʃe/ or /lɑ.ʃe/ |
lâchas /la.ʃa/ or /lɑ.ʃa/ |
lâcha /la.ʃa/ or /lɑ.ʃa/ |
lâchâmes /la.ʃam/ or /lɑ.ʃam/ |
lâchâtes /la.ʃat/ or /lɑ.ʃat/ |
lâchèrent /la.ʃɛʁ/ or /lɑ.ʃɛʁ/ | |
| future | lâcherai /laʃ.ʁe/ or /lɑʃ.ʁe/ |
lâcheras /laʃ.ʁa/ or /lɑʃ.ʁa/ |
lâchera /laʃ.ʁa/ or /lɑʃ.ʁa/ |
lâcherons /laʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /lɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/ |
lâcherez /laʃ.ʁe/ or /lɑʃ.ʁe/ |
lâcheront /laʃ.ʁɔ̃/ or /lɑʃ.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | lâcherais /laʃ.ʁɛ/ or /lɑʃ.ʁɛ/ |
lâcherais /laʃ.ʁɛ/ or /lɑʃ.ʁɛ/ |
lâcherait /laʃ.ʁɛ/ or /lɑʃ.ʁɛ/ |
lâcherions /la.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
lâcheriez /la.ʃə.ʁje/ or /lɑ.ʃə.ʁje/ |
lâcheraient /laʃ.ʁɛ/ or /lɑʃ.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 | lâche /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâches /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâche /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
lâchions /la.ʃjɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃjɔ̃/ |
lâchiez /la.ʃje/ or /lɑ.ʃje/ |
lâchent /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
| imperfect2 | lâchasse /la.ʃas/ or /lɑ.ʃas/ |
lâchasses /la.ʃas/ or /lɑ.ʃas/ |
lâchât /la.ʃa/ or /lɑ.ʃa/ |
lâchassions /la.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ |
lâchassiez /la.ʃa.sje/ or /lɑ.ʃa.sje/ |
lâchassent /la.ʃas/ or /lɑ.ʃas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | lâche /laʃ/ or /lɑʃ/ |
— | lâchons /la.ʃɔ̃/ or /lɑ.ʃɔ̃/ |
lâchez /la.ʃe/ or /lɑ.ʃe/ |
— | |
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Noun edit
lâcher m (plural lâchers)
- Synonym of lâchage
Further reading edit
- “lâcher”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.