ralentir

French

Etymology

From a now obsolete alentir, corresponding to a- (“toward”) + lent (“slow”) + -ir (“verbal suffix”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.lɑ̃.tiʁ/

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Verb

ralentir

1. (transitive, intransitive) to slow down
2. to abate
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Volume I, Chapter XXXIII:

     ... Lothaire commença à ralentir peu à peu, par réflexion, ses allées et venues dans la maison de son ami.

     ... Lothario started to abate little by little, by reflection, his goings and comings to the house of his friend.

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 ralentir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ralentir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ralentissant /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ralenti /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ralentis /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentis /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentit /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentissons /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	ralentissez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.se/	ralentissent /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect	ralentissais /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	ralentissais /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	ralentissait /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	ralentissions /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	ralentissiez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sje/	ralentissaient /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	ralentis /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentis /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentit /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentîmes /ʁa.lɑ̃.tim/	ralentîtes /ʁa.lɑ̃.tit/	ralentirent /ʁa.lɑ̃.tiʁ/
	future	ralentirai /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	ralentiras /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	ralentira /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	ralentirons /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/	ralentirez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	ralentiront /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ralentirais /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	ralentirais /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	ralentirait /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	ralentirions /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	ralentiriez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.ʁje/	ralentiraient /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.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	ralentisse /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/	ralentisses /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/	ralentisse /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/	ralentissions /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	ralentissiez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sje/	ralentissent /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect2	ralentisse /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/	ralentisses /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/	ralentît /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	ralentissions /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	ralentissiez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sje/	ralentissent /ʁa.lɑ̃.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ralentis /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti/	—	ralentissons /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	ralentissez /ʁa.lɑ̃.ti.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).

Related terms

• ralentissement
• ralenti

Further reading

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