bidouiller

French

Etymology

bidouille (“idiot”, dialectal word) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.du.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

bidouiller

1. (colloquial, transitive) to fiddle (with)

   Le gouvernement bidouille les chiffres du chômage.

   The government manipulates unemployment statistics.

Conjugation

Conjugation of bidouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bidouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bidouillant /bi.du.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bidouillé /bi.du.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bidouille /bi.duj/	bidouilles /bi.duj/	bidouille /bi.duj/	bidouillons /bi.du.jɔ̃/	bidouillez /bi.du.je/	bidouillent /bi.duj/
	imperfect	bidouillais /bi.du.jɛ/	bidouillais /bi.du.jɛ/	bidouillait /bi.du.jɛ/	bidouillions /bi.duj.jɔ̃/	bidouilliez /bi.duj.je/	bidouillaient /bi.du.jɛ/
	past historic2	bidouillai /bi.du.je/	bidouillas /bi.du.ja/	bidouilla /bi.du.ja/	bidouillâmes /bi.du.jam/	bidouillâtes /bi.du.jat/	bidouillèrent /bi.du.jɛʁ/
	future	bidouillerai /bi.duj.ʁe/	bidouilleras /bi.duj.ʁa/	bidouillera /bi.duj.ʁa/	bidouillerons /bi.duj.ʁɔ̃/	bidouillerez /bi.duj.ʁe/	bidouilleront /bi.duj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bidouillerais /bi.duj.ʁɛ/	bidouillerais /bi.duj.ʁɛ/	bidouillerait /bi.duj.ʁɛ/	bidouillerions /bi.du.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	bidouilleriez /bi.du.jə.ʁje/	bidouilleraient /bi.duj.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	bidouille /bi.duj/	bidouilles /bi.duj/	bidouille /bi.duj/	bidouillions /bi.duj.jɔ̃/	bidouilliez /bi.duj.je/	bidouillent /bi.duj/
	imperfect2	bidouillasse /bi.du.jas/	bidouillasses /bi.du.jas/	bidouillât /bi.du.ja/	bidouillassions /bi.du.ja.sjɔ̃/	bidouillassiez /bi.du.ja.sje/	bidouillassent /bi.du.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bidouille /bi.duj/	—	bidouillons /bi.du.jɔ̃/	bidouillez /bi.du.je/	—
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

• bidouillage