broyer

See also: broþer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French broier, from Old French breier, breer, brier (“to break”), from Frankish *brekan (“to break”), from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”).

Cognate with Old Dutch brecan (“to break”), Old High German brehhan (“to break”), Old English brecan (“to break”), Spanish bregar (“to toil, to deal with”), Italian sbrigare (“to handle, to deal with”), Sicilian sbrija and sbrijuni (“lever to knead dough”). More at break.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁwa.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

broyer

1. to crush, grind
2. (figuratively, slang) to crush in a fight
3. (slang, sports) to outpower

Conjugation

This verb is part of a large group of -er verbs that conjugate like noyer or ennuyer. These verbs always replace the 'y' with an 'i' before a silent 'e'.

Conjugation of broyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	broyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	broyant /bʁwa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		broyé /bʁwa.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	broie /bʁwa/	broies /bʁwa/	broie /bʁwa/	broyons /bʁwa.jɔ̃/	broyez /bʁwa.je/	broient /bʁwa/
	imperfect	broyais /bʁwa.jɛ/	broyais /bʁwa.jɛ/	broyait /bʁwa.jɛ/	broyions /bʁwaj.jɔ̃/	broyiez /bʁwaj.je/	broyaient /bʁwa.jɛ/
	past historic2	broyai /bʁwa.je/	broyas /bʁwa.ja/	broya /bʁwa.ja/	broyâmes /bʁwa.jam/	broyâtes /bʁwa.jat/	broyèrent /bʁwa.jɛʁ/
	future	broierai /bʁwa.ʁe/	broieras /bʁwa.ʁa/	broiera /bʁwa.ʁa/	broierons /bʁwa.ʁɔ̃/	broierez /bʁwa.ʁe/	broieront /bʁwa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	broierais /bʁwa.ʁɛ/	broierais /bʁwa.ʁɛ/	broierait /bʁwa.ʁɛ/	broierions /bʁwa.ʁjɔ̃/	broieriez /bʁwa.ʁje/	broieraient /bʁwa.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	broie /bʁwa/	broies /bʁwa/	broie /bʁwa/	broyions /bʁwaj.jɔ̃/	broyiez /bʁwaj.je/	broient /bʁwa/
	imperfect2	broyasse /bʁwa.jas/	broyasses /bʁwa.jas/	broyât /bʁwa.ja/	broyassions /bʁwa.ja.sjɔ̃/	broyassiez /bʁwa.ja.sje/	broyassent /bʁwa.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	broie /bʁwa/	—	broyons /bʁwa.jɔ̃/	broyez /bʁwa.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

• broyer du noir
• broyeur

Further reading

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