chuinter

French

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɥɛ̃.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

chuinter

1. (intransitive, of an owl) to hoot, screech
2. (intransitive, of a machine) to buzz, whirr, whoosh
3. (intransitive, of a door) to creak
4. (intransitive) to swish
5. (intransitive, of tires) to hiss
6. (intransitive) to pronounce the phoneme s as ʃ, often seen as a speech defect or regionalism. Can be compared to lisping in the English language.

Conjugation

Conjugation of chuinter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	chuinter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	chuintant /ʃɥɛ̃.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		chuinté /ʃɥɛ̃.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	chuinte /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuintes /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuinte /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuintons /ʃɥɛ̃.tɔ̃/	chuintez /ʃɥɛ̃.te/	chuintent /ʃɥɛ̃t/
	imperfect	chuintais /ʃɥɛ̃.tɛ/	chuintais /ʃɥɛ̃.tɛ/	chuintait /ʃɥɛ̃.tɛ/	chuintions /ʃɥɛ̃.tjɔ̃/	chuintiez /ʃɥɛ̃.tje/	chuintaient /ʃɥɛ̃.tɛ/
	past historic2	chuintai /ʃɥɛ̃.te/	chuintas /ʃɥɛ̃.ta/	chuinta /ʃɥɛ̃.ta/	chuintâmes /ʃɥɛ̃.tam/	chuintâtes /ʃɥɛ̃.tat/	chuintèrent /ʃɥɛ̃.tɛʁ/
	future	chuinterai /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁe/	chuinteras /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁa/	chuintera /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁa/	chuinterons /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɔ̃/	chuinterez /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁe/	chuinteront /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	chuinterais /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɛ/	chuinterais /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɛ/	chuinterait /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɛ/	chuinterions /ʃɥɛ̃.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	chuinteriez /ʃɥɛ̃.tə.ʁje/	chuinteraient /ʃɥɛ̃.tʁɛ/
(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	chuinte /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuintes /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuinte /ʃɥɛ̃t/	chuintions /ʃɥɛ̃.tjɔ̃/	chuintiez /ʃɥɛ̃.tje/	chuintent /ʃɥɛ̃t/
	imperfect2	chuintasse /ʃɥɛ̃.tas/	chuintasses /ʃɥɛ̃.tas/	chuintât /ʃɥɛ̃.ta/	chuintassions /ʃɥɛ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/	chuintassiez /ʃɥɛ̃.ta.sje/	chuintassent /ʃɥɛ̃.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	chuinte /ʃɥɛ̃t/	—	chuintons /ʃɥɛ̃.tɔ̃/	chuintez /ʃɥɛ̃.te/	—
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).

Related terms

• chuintement

Further reading

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