battre

See also: bättre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French battre, from Old French batre, from Latin battere, from earlier battuere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /batʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

battre

1. to beat; to defeat
2. to beat up
3. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to fight
   • 2018, Zaz, Saint-Valentin:

     J’irai dans un bar ce soir. […] Je me battrai pour une place au comptoir.

     I'm going to a bar tonight. […] I will fight for a seat at the counter.

4. (cooking) to whisk or whip (eggs)
5. (agriculture) to thresh
6. (card games) to shuffle

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like vendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs), except that instead of *batt and *batts, it has the forms bat and bats. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.

Conjugation of battre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	battre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	battant /ba.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		battu /ba.ty/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bats /ba/	bats /ba/	bat /ba/	battons /ba.tɔ̃/	battez /ba.te/	battent /bat/
	imperfect	battais /ba.tɛ/	battais /ba.tɛ/	battait /ba.tɛ/	battions /ba.tjɔ̃/	battiez /ba.tje/	battaient /ba.tɛ/
	past historic2	battis /ba.ti/	battis /ba.ti/	battit /ba.ti/	battîmes /ba.tim/	battîtes /ba.tit/	battirent /ba.tiʁ/
	future	battrai /ba.tʁe/	battras /ba.tʁa/	battra /ba.tʁa/	battrons /ba.tʁɔ̃/	battrez /ba.tʁe/	battront /ba.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	battrais /ba.tʁɛ/	battrais /ba.tʁɛ/	battrait /ba.tʁɛ/	battrions /ba.tʁi.jɔ̃/	battriez /ba.tʁi.je/	battraient /ba.tʁɛ/
(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	batte /bat/	battes /bat/	batte /bat/	battions /ba.tjɔ̃/	battiez /ba.tje/	battent /bat/
	imperfect2	battisse /ba.tis/	battisses /ba.tis/	battît /ba.ti/	battissions /ba.ti.sjɔ̃/	battissiez /ba.ti.sje/	battissent /ba.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bats /ba/	—	battons /ba.tɔ̃/	battez /ba.te/	—
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

• battage
• battement
• batterie
• battoir
• battre à plate couture
• battre à plate couture
• battre à plates coutures
• battre comme plâtre
• battre de l’aile
• battre en brèche
• battre en retraite
• battre froid
• battre la campagne
• battre la chamade
• battre la mesure
• battre le fer tant qu’il est chaud
• battre monnaie
• battre sa coulpe
• battre son plein
• contrebattre
• rabattre
• rien à battre
• se battre comme des chiffonniers
• se battre les couilles de
• sortir des sentiers battus
• s’en battre les steaks
• terre battue

 

Further reading

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

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French batre.

Verb

battre

1. (reflexive, se battre) to fight; to engage in combat

Related terms

• combattre

Descendants

• French: battre

Norman

Etymology

From Old French batre, from Latin battere, from earlier battuere.

Verb

battre (gerund batt'tie)

1. (Jersey) to beat
2. (Jersey, reflexive, s'battre) to fight

Derived terms

• battre lé beurre (“to make butter”)