approfondir

French

Etymology

From a- +‎ profond +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.diʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

approfondir

1. to deepen
2. to consider more thoroughly, to delve deeper into
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche‎^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:

     Avec ces propos et d’autres semblables, le pauvre gentilhomme perdait le jugement. Il passait les nuits et se donnait la torture pour les comprendre, pour les approfondir, pour leur tirer le sens des entrailles, ce qu’Aristote lui-même n’aurait pu faire, s’il fût ressuscité tout exprès pour cela.

     With these passages and other similar ones, the poor gentleman lost his judgement. He spent his nights and tortured himself to understand them, to consider them more deeply, to take from them their deepest meaning, which Aristotle himself would not have been able to do, had he been resurrected for that very purpose.

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 approfondir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	approfondir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	approfondissant /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		approfondi /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	approfondis /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondis /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondit /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondissons /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɔ̃/	approfondissez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.se/	approfondissent /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/
	imperfect	approfondissais /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɛ/	approfondissais /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɛ/	approfondissait /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɛ/	approfondissions /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sjɔ̃/	approfondissiez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sje/	approfondissaient /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɛ/
	past historic2	approfondis /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondis /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondit /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondîmes /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dim/	approfondîtes /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dit/	approfondirent /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.diʁ/
	future	approfondirai /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁe/	approfondiras /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁa/	approfondira /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁa/	approfondirons /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁɔ̃/	approfondirez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁe/	approfondiront /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	approfondirais /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁɛ/	approfondirais /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁɛ/	approfondirait /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁɛ/	approfondirions /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁjɔ̃/	approfondiriez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.ʁje/	approfondiraient /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.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	approfondisse /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/	approfondisses /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/	approfondisse /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/	approfondissions /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sjɔ̃/	approfondissiez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sje/	approfondissent /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/
	imperfect2	approfondisse /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/	approfondisses /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/	approfondît /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	approfondissions /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sjɔ̃/	approfondissiez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sje/	approfondissent /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.dis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	approfondis /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di/	—	approfondissons /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.sɔ̃/	approfondissez /a.pʁɔ.fɔ̃.di.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

• approfondissement

Further reading

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