serrer
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Old French serrer, from Vulgar Latin *serrāre (“close, shut”), from Late Latin serāre (“fasten, bolt”), from Latin sera (“bolt, crossbar”).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
serrer
- (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.
- (transitive) to shake (hands)
- J’ai refusé de lui serrer la main. ― I refused to shake his/her hand.
- (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.
- (transitive) to hug, to stay close to
- serrer la côte ― to hug the shore, to hug the coastline
- (reflexive) to squeeze
- Ils se sont serrés pour lui faire une place.
- They squeezed together to make room for him.
- (takes a reflexive pronoun) to shake (hands)
- Les jeunes hommes d’affaires se sont serré la main. ― The young businessmen shook each other's hands.
- (slang, transitive) to seduce; to flirt with
- (slang, law enforcement, transitive) to pinch (to arrest, apprehend someone)
- Synonyms: appréhender, arrêter
Conjugation edit
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 | – | – | – | ||||
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms edit
- 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 edit
- “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 edit
Verb edit
serrer