bloquer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French bloquer, from Middle Dutch blok, from Old Dutch *blok, from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɔ.ke/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

bloquer

1. to block (physically), to barricade, to obstruct

   Un arbre bloque le passage.

   A tree is blocking [off] the passage.

2. to jam, to wedge, to fix in place
3. to freeze (e.g. prices)

   Les agriculteurs souhaitent bloquer le prix de leur blé.

   The farmers are wishing to block the price of their wheat.

4. to defeat

   Ils doivent bloquer ses adversaires.

   They must defeat their opponents.

5. to block, to impede, to hinder

   L’adrénaline peut ralentir ou bloquer le travail.

   Adrenaline can slow down or impede work.

6. (reflexive, of a computer program) to freeze, to lock up
7. (reflexive) to become jammed
8. (reflexive) to retreat

Conjugation

Conjugation of bloquer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bloquer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bloquant /blɔ.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bloqué /blɔ.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bloque /blɔk/	bloques /blɔk/	bloque /blɔk/	bloquons /blɔ.kɔ̃/	bloquez /blɔ.ke/	bloquent /blɔk/
	imperfect	bloquais /blɔ.kɛ/	bloquais /blɔ.kɛ/	bloquait /blɔ.kɛ/	bloquions /blɔ.kjɔ̃/	bloquiez /blɔ.kje/	bloquaient /blɔ.kɛ/
	past historic2	bloquai /blɔ.ke/	bloquas /blɔ.ka/	bloqua /blɔ.ka/	bloquâmes /blɔ.kam/	bloquâtes /blɔ.kat/	bloquèrent /blɔ.kɛʁ/
	future	bloquerai /blɔ.kʁe/	bloqueras /blɔ.kʁa/	bloquera /blɔ.kʁa/	bloquerons /blɔ.kʁɔ̃/	bloquerez /blɔ.kʁe/	bloqueront /blɔ.kʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bloquerais /blɔ.kʁɛ/	bloquerais /blɔ.kʁɛ/	bloquerait /blɔ.kʁɛ/	bloquerions /blɔ.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	bloqueriez /blɔ.kə.ʁje/	bloqueraient /blɔ.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	bloque /blɔk/	bloques /blɔk/	bloque /blɔk/	bloquions /blɔ.kjɔ̃/	bloquiez /blɔ.kje/	bloquent /blɔk/
	imperfect2	bloquasse /blɔ.kas/	bloquasses /blɔ.kas/	bloquât /blɔ.ka/	bloquassions /blɔ.ka.sjɔ̃/	bloquassiez /blɔ.ka.sje/	bloquassent /blɔ.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bloque /blɔk/	—	bloquons /blɔ.kɔ̃/	bloquez /blɔ.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).

Derived terms

• blocage
• bloque

Descendants

• → German: blockieren
• → Galician: bloquear
• → Romanian: bloca
• → Spanish: bloquear
  • → Portuguese: bloquear

Further reading

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