ébaucher

French

Etymology

From Middle French esbaucher (“to rough-hew, frame”), alteration (due to Middle French bauche (“beam, wooden crosspiece”)) of Old French esbosquier, esboskier (“to rough-hew beams”), from es- (“out”) + bosc (“wood, firewood”), from Frankish *bosk (“wood”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“wood, thicket”). Cognate with Old French esbochier (“to prune grapes”), French bois (“wood”), bau (“beam”). More at bush, balk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.bo.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

ébaucher

1. (transitive) to sketch, rough out (a plan, picture); to draft (a piece of writing)
2. (transitive) to start up (a conversation, friendship etc.)
3. (reflexive) to form, take shape
4. (reflexive) to open up, start up

Conjugation

Conjugation of ébaucher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ébaucher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ébauchant /e.bo.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ébauché /e.bo.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ébauche /e.boʃ/	ébauches /e.boʃ/	ébauche /e.boʃ/	ébauchons /e.bo.ʃɔ̃/	ébauchez /e.bo.ʃe/	ébauchent /e.boʃ/
	imperfect	ébauchais /e.bo.ʃɛ/	ébauchais /e.bo.ʃɛ/	ébauchait /e.bo.ʃɛ/	ébauchions /e.bo.ʃjɔ̃/	ébauchiez /e.bo.ʃje/	ébauchaient /e.bo.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	ébauchai /e.bo.ʃe/	ébauchas /e.bo.ʃa/	ébaucha /e.bo.ʃa/	ébauchâmes /e.bo.ʃam/	ébauchâtes /e.bo.ʃat/	ébauchèrent /e.bo.ʃɛʁ/
	future	ébaucherai /e.boʃ.ʁe/	ébaucheras /e.boʃ.ʁa/	ébauchera /e.boʃ.ʁa/	ébaucherons /e.boʃ.ʁɔ̃/	ébaucherez /e.boʃ.ʁe/	ébaucheront /e.boʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ébaucherais /e.boʃ.ʁɛ/	ébaucherais /e.boʃ.ʁɛ/	ébaucherait /e.boʃ.ʁɛ/	ébaucherions /e.bo.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	ébaucheriez /e.bo.ʃə.ʁje/	ébaucheraient /e.boʃ.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	ébauche /e.boʃ/	ébauches /e.boʃ/	ébauche /e.boʃ/	ébauchions /e.bo.ʃjɔ̃/	ébauchiez /e.bo.ʃje/	ébauchent /e.boʃ/
	imperfect2	ébauchasse /e.bo.ʃas/	ébauchasses /e.bo.ʃas/	ébauchât /e.bo.ʃa/	ébauchassions /e.bo.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	ébauchassiez /e.bo.ʃa.sje/	ébauchassent /e.bo.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ébauche /e.boʃ/	—	ébauchons /e.bo.ʃɔ̃/	ébauchez /e.bo.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: 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).

Further reading

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