combler
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French, from Latin cumulāre, present active infinitive of cumulō. Doublet of the borrowing cumuler.
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
combler
- to fulfil, satisfy
- 2016, Gaël Faye, Petit Pays:
- Un rêve, ils en avaient eu un chacun, égoïste, et ils n'étaient pas prêts à combler les attentes de l'autre.
- {{{t}}}
- (literally and figuratively) to fill (add contents to, so it is full)
- 1640, Pierre Corneille, “Act 2, Scene 1”, in Horace:
- Ce choix pouvait combler trois familles de gloire / Consacrer hautement leurs noms à la mémoire
- This choice could fill three families with glory / Consecrate in high memory their names
- to fill (to install someone)
- to counter
ConjugationEdit
Conjugation of combler (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | combler | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | comblant /kɔ̃.blɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | comblé /kɔ̃.ble/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | comble /kɔ̃bl/ |
combles /kɔ̃bl/ |
comble /kɔ̃bl/ |
comblons /kɔ̃.blɔ̃/ |
comblez /kɔ̃.ble/ |
comblent /kɔ̃bl/ |
| imperfect | comblais /kɔ̃.blɛ/ |
comblais /kɔ̃.blɛ/ |
comblait /kɔ̃.blɛ/ |
comblions /kɔ̃.bli.jɔ̃/ |
combliez /kɔ̃.bli.je/ |
comblaient /kɔ̃.blɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | comblai /kɔ̃.ble/ |
comblas /kɔ̃.bla/ |
combla /kɔ̃.bla/ |
comblâmes /kɔ̃.blam/ |
comblâtes /kɔ̃.blat/ |
comblèrent /kɔ̃.blɛʁ/ | |
| future | comblerai /kɔ̃.blə.ʁe/ |
combleras /kɔ̃.blə.ʁa/ |
comblera /kɔ̃.blə.ʁa/ |
comblerons /kɔ̃.blə.ʁɔ̃/ |
comblerez /kɔ̃.blə.ʁe/ |
combleront /kɔ̃.blə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | comblerais /kɔ̃.blə.ʁɛ/ |
comblerais /kɔ̃.blə.ʁɛ/ |
comblerait /kɔ̃.blə.ʁɛ/ |
comblerions /kɔ̃.blə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
combleriez /kɔ̃.blə.ʁje/ |
combleraient /kɔ̃.blə.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 | comble /kɔ̃bl/ |
combles /kɔ̃bl/ |
comble /kɔ̃bl/ |
comblions /kɔ̃.bli.jɔ̃/ |
combliez /kɔ̃.bli.je/ |
comblent /kɔ̃bl/ |
| imperfect2 | comblasse /kɔ̃.blas/ |
comblasses /kɔ̃.blas/ |
comblât /kɔ̃.bla/ |
comblassions /kɔ̃.bla.sjɔ̃/ |
comblassiez /kɔ̃.bla.sje/ |
comblassent /kɔ̃.blas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | comble /kɔ̃bl/ |
— | comblons /kɔ̃.blɔ̃/ |
comblez /kɔ̃.ble/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is only usable with the preposition en. | |||||||
| 2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
SynonymsEdit
Related termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “combler” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).