arnaquer

French

Etymology

Believed to originally stem from a Picard pronunciation of arnacher or harnacher (“to dress up ridiculously”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.na.ke/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

arnaquer

1. (informal) to swindle, to dupe
2. (informal) to cheat

Conjugation

Conjugation of arnaquer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	arnaquer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	arnaquant /aʁ.na.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		arnaqué /aʁ.na.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	arnaque /aʁ.nak/	arnaques /aʁ.nak/	arnaque /aʁ.nak/	arnaquons /aʁ.na.kɔ̃/	arnaquez /aʁ.na.ke/	arnaquent /aʁ.nak/
	imperfect	arnaquais /aʁ.na.kɛ/	arnaquais /aʁ.na.kɛ/	arnaquait /aʁ.na.kɛ/	arnaquions /aʁ.na.kjɔ̃/	arnaquiez /aʁ.na.kje/	arnaquaient /aʁ.na.kɛ/
	past historic2	arnaquai /aʁ.na.ke/	arnaquas /aʁ.na.ka/	arnaqua /aʁ.na.ka/	arnaquâmes /aʁ.na.kam/	arnaquâtes /aʁ.na.kat/	arnaquèrent /aʁ.na.kɛʁ/
	future	arnaquerai /aʁ.na.kʁe/	arnaqueras /aʁ.na.kʁa/	arnaquera /aʁ.na.kʁa/	arnaquerons /aʁ.na.kʁɔ̃/	arnaquerez /aʁ.na.kʁe/	arnaqueront /aʁ.na.kʁɔ̃/
	conditional	arnaquerais /aʁ.na.kʁɛ/	arnaquerais /aʁ.na.kʁɛ/	arnaquerait /aʁ.na.kʁɛ/	arnaquerions /aʁ.na.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	arnaqueriez /aʁ.na.kə.ʁje/	arnaqueraient /aʁ.na.kʁɛ/
(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	arnaque /aʁ.nak/	arnaques /aʁ.nak/	arnaque /aʁ.nak/	arnaquions /aʁ.na.kjɔ̃/	arnaquiez /aʁ.na.kje/	arnaquent /aʁ.nak/
	imperfect2	arnaquasse /aʁ.na.kas/	arnaquasses /aʁ.na.kas/	arnaquât /aʁ.na.ka/	arnaquassions /aʁ.na.ka.sjɔ̃/	arnaquassiez /aʁ.na.ka.sje/	arnaquassent /aʁ.na.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	arnaque /aʁ.nak/	—	arnaquons /aʁ.na.kɔ̃/	arnaquez /aʁ.na.ke/	—
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

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