échiner

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

échiner

1. to break someone's back
2. (Louisiana) to wear out, to tire
3. (reflexive, literally and figuratively) to break one's back
4. (reflexive, Louisiana) to tire oneself out

Conjugation

Conjugation of échiner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	échiner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	échinant /e.ʃi.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		échiné /e.ʃi.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	échine /e.ʃin/	échines /e.ʃin/	échine /e.ʃin/	échinons /e.ʃi.nɔ̃/	échinez /e.ʃi.ne/	échinent /e.ʃin/
	imperfect	échinais /e.ʃi.nɛ/	échinais /e.ʃi.nɛ/	échinait /e.ʃi.nɛ/	échinions /e.ʃi.njɔ̃/	échiniez /e.ʃi.nje/	échinaient /e.ʃi.nɛ/
	past historic2	échinai /e.ʃi.ne/	échinas /e.ʃi.na/	échina /e.ʃi.na/	échinâmes /e.ʃi.nam/	échinâtes /e.ʃi.nat/	échinèrent /e.ʃi.nɛʁ/
	future	échinerai /e.ʃin.ʁe/	échineras /e.ʃin.ʁa/	échinera /e.ʃin.ʁa/	échinerons /e.ʃin.ʁɔ̃/	échinerez /e.ʃin.ʁe/	échineront /e.ʃin.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	échinerais /e.ʃin.ʁɛ/	échinerais /e.ʃin.ʁɛ/	échinerait /e.ʃin.ʁɛ/	échinerions /e.ʃi.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	échineriez /e.ʃi.nə.ʁje/	échineraient /e.ʃin.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	échine /e.ʃin/	échines /e.ʃin/	échine /e.ʃin/	échinions /e.ʃi.njɔ̃/	échiniez /e.ʃi.nje/	échinent /e.ʃin/
	imperfect2	échinasse /e.ʃi.nas/	échinasses /e.ʃi.nas/	échinât /e.ʃi.na/	échinassions /e.ʃi.na.sjɔ̃/	échinassiez /e.ʃi.na.sje/	échinassent /e.ʃi.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	échine /e.ʃin/	—	échinons /e.ʃi.nɔ̃/	échinez /e.ʃi.ne/	—
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

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