borner

See also: Borner

French

Etymology

From borne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔʁ.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

borner

1. to limit, confine
   • 1640, Pierre Corneille, Horace, act I, scene I:

     Tes grands Destins / ne le borneront pas chez les peuples Latins

     Your [Rome's] great destiny / Shall not confine it [the Roman state] to the Latin peoples

2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to confine oneself (à faire to doing something)
3. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to content oneself

Conjugation

Conjugation of borner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	borner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bornant /bɔʁ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		borné /bɔʁ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	borne /bɔʁn/	bornes /bɔʁn/	borne /bɔʁn/	bornons /bɔʁ.nɔ̃/	bornez /bɔʁ.ne/	bornent /bɔʁn/
	imperfect	bornais /bɔʁ.nɛ/	bornais /bɔʁ.nɛ/	bornait /bɔʁ.nɛ/	bornions /bɔʁ.njɔ̃/	borniez /bɔʁ.nje/	bornaient /bɔʁ.nɛ/
	past historic2	bornai /bɔʁ.ne/	bornas /bɔʁ.na/	borna /bɔʁ.na/	bornâmes /bɔʁ.nam/	bornâtes /bɔʁ.nat/	bornèrent /bɔʁ.nɛʁ/
	future	bornerai /bɔʁ.nə.ʁe/	borneras /bɔʁ.nə.ʁa/	bornera /bɔʁ.nə.ʁa/	bornerons /bɔʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/	bornerez /bɔʁ.nə.ʁe/	borneront /bɔʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bornerais /bɔʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bornerais /bɔʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bornerait /bɔʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bornerions /bɔʁ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	borneriez /bɔʁ.nə.ʁje/	borneraient /bɔʁ.nə.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	borne /bɔʁn/	bornes /bɔʁn/	borne /bɔʁn/	bornions /bɔʁ.njɔ̃/	borniez /bɔʁ.nje/	bornent /bɔʁn/
	imperfect2	bornasse /bɔʁ.nas/	bornasses /bɔʁ.nas/	bornât /bɔʁ.na/	bornassions /bɔʁ.na.sjɔ̃/	bornassiez /bɔʁ.na.sje/	bornassent /bɔʁ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	borne /bɔʁn/	—	bornons /bɔʁ.nɔ̃/	bornez /bɔʁ.ne/	—
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

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