dessiner

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French desseigner, borrowed from Italian disegnare, from Latin designāre. Doublet of désigner.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.si.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: dessinai, dessiné, dessinée, dessinés, dessinées

Verb

dessiner

1. to draw, to sketch
2. to draw up, to design
3. (takes a reflexive pronoun, se dessiner) to take shape, to appear slowly

Conjugation

Conjugation of dessiner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	dessiner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	dessinant /de.si.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		dessiné /de.si.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	dessine /de.sin/	dessines /de.sin/	dessine /de.sin/	dessinons /de.si.nɔ̃/	dessinez /de.si.ne/	dessinent /de.sin/
	imperfect	dessinais /de.si.nɛ/	dessinais /de.si.nɛ/	dessinait /de.si.nɛ/	dessinions /de.si.njɔ̃/	dessiniez /de.si.nje/	dessinaient /de.si.nɛ/
	past historic2	dessinai /de.si.ne/	dessinas /de.si.na/	dessina /de.si.na/	dessinâmes /de.si.nam/	dessinâtes /de.si.nat/	dessinèrent /de.si.nɛʁ/
	future	dessinerai /de.sin.ʁe/	dessineras /de.sin.ʁa/	dessinera /de.sin.ʁa/	dessinerons /de.sin.ʁɔ̃/	dessinerez /de.sin.ʁe/	dessineront /de.sin.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	dessinerais /de.sin.ʁɛ/	dessinerais /de.sin.ʁɛ/	dessinerait /de.sin.ʁɛ/	dessinerions /de.si.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	dessineriez /de.si.nə.ʁje/	dessineraient /de.sin.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	dessine /de.sin/	dessines /de.sin/	dessine /de.sin/	dessinions /de.si.njɔ̃/	dessiniez /de.si.nje/	dessinent /de.sin/
	imperfect2	dessinasse /de.si.nas/	dessinasses /de.si.nas/	dessinât /de.si.na/	dessinassions /de.si.na.sjɔ̃/	dessinassiez /de.si.na.sje/	dessinassent /de.si.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	dessine /de.sin/	—	dessinons /de.si.nɔ̃/	dessinez /de.si.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).

Derived terms

• bande dessinée
• dessin

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• rendisse