affairer

French

Etymology

From affaire or a backformation of affairé.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fɛ.ʁe/ ~ /a.fe.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

affairer

1. (intransitive, rare) to absorb

   Il était affairé par son travail.

   He was absorbed in his work.

2. (reflexive) to busy oneself [from 19th c.]

Conjugation

Conjugation of affairer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	affairer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	affairant /a.fɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		affairé /a.fɛ.ʁe/ or /a.fe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	affaire /a.fɛʁ/	affaires /a.fɛʁ/	affaire /a.fɛʁ/	affairons /a.fɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁɔ̃/	affairez /a.fɛ.ʁe/ or /a.fe.ʁe/	affairent /a.fɛʁ/
	imperfect	affairais /a.fɛ.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁɛ/	affairais /a.fɛ.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁɛ/	affairait /a.fɛ.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁɛ/	affairions /a.fɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	affairiez /a.fɛ.ʁje/ or /a.fe.ʁje/	affairaient /a.fɛ.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	affairai /a.fɛ.ʁe/ or /a.fe.ʁe/	affairas /a.fɛ.ʁa/ or /a.fe.ʁa/	affaira /a.fɛ.ʁa/ or /a.fe.ʁa/	affairâmes /a.fɛ.ʁam/ or /a.fe.ʁam/	affairâtes /a.fɛ.ʁat/ or /a.fe.ʁat/	affairèrent /a.fɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /a.fe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	affairerai /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	affaireras /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	affairera /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	affairerons /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	affairerez /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	affaireront /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	affairerais /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	affairerais /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	affairerait /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	affairerions /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	affaireriez /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /a.fe.ʁə.ʁje/	affaireraient /a.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.fe.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	affaire /a.fɛʁ/	affaires /a.fɛʁ/	affaire /a.fɛʁ/	affairions /a.fɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	affairiez /a.fɛ.ʁje/ or /a.fe.ʁje/	affairent /a.fɛʁ/
	imperfect2	affairasse /a.fɛ.ʁas/ or /a.fe.ʁas/	affairasses /a.fɛ.ʁas/ or /a.fe.ʁas/	affairât /a.fɛ.ʁa/ or /a.fe.ʁa/	affairassions /a.fɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	affairassiez /a.fɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /a.fe.ʁa.sje/	affairassent /a.fɛ.ʁas/ or /a.fe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	affaire /a.fɛʁ/	—	affairons /a.fɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.fe.ʁɔ̃/	affairez /a.fɛ.ʁe/ or /a.fe.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: 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).

Related terms

• affairé
• affaire

Further reading

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