abonnir

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bɔ.niʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

abonnir

1. (transitive, absolutive or reflexive, usually inanimate, strongly dated) to improve; to render or become better

Usage notes

• The verb is commonly used in agriculture to signify the action of enriching a soil. It is also used to refer to the improvement of wine over time.
• The verb is sometimes used humorously, and has been replaced in common use by améliorer.

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 abonnir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	abonnir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	abonnissant /a.bɔ.ni.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abonni /a.bɔ.ni/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	abonnis /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnis /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnit /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnissons /a.bɔ.ni.sɔ̃/	abonnissez /a.bɔ.ni.se/	abonnissent /a.bɔ.nis/
	imperfect	abonnissais /a.bɔ.ni.sɛ/	abonnissais /a.bɔ.ni.sɛ/	abonnissait /a.bɔ.ni.sɛ/	abonnissions /a.bɔ.ni.sjɔ̃/	abonnissiez /a.bɔ.ni.sje/	abonnissaient /a.bɔ.ni.sɛ/
	past historic2	abonnis /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnis /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnit /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnîmes /a.bɔ.nim/	abonnîtes /a.bɔ.nit/	abonnirent /a.bɔ.niʁ/
	future	abonnirai /a.bɔ.ni.ʁe/	abonniras /a.bɔ.ni.ʁa/	abonnira /a.bɔ.ni.ʁa/	abonnirons /a.bɔ.ni.ʁɔ̃/	abonnirez /a.bɔ.ni.ʁe/	abonniront /a.bɔ.ni.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	abonnirais /a.bɔ.ni.ʁɛ/	abonnirais /a.bɔ.ni.ʁɛ/	abonnirait /a.bɔ.ni.ʁɛ/	abonnirions /a.bɔ.ni.ʁjɔ̃/	abonniriez /a.bɔ.ni.ʁje/	abonniraient /a.bɔ.ni.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	abonnisse /a.bɔ.nis/	abonnisses /a.bɔ.nis/	abonnisse /a.bɔ.nis/	abonnissions /a.bɔ.ni.sjɔ̃/	abonnissiez /a.bɔ.ni.sje/	abonnissent /a.bɔ.nis/
	imperfect2	abonnisse /a.bɔ.nis/	abonnisses /a.bɔ.nis/	abonnît /a.bɔ.ni/	abonnissions /a.bɔ.ni.sjɔ̃/	abonnissiez /a.bɔ.ni.sje/	abonnissent /a.bɔ.nis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	abonnis /a.bɔ.ni/	—	abonnissons /a.bɔ.ni.sɔ̃/	abonnissez /a.bɔ.ni.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).

Derived terms

• abonnissement

Further reading

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