distraire

French edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin distrahere, with conjugation based on French traire.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /dis.tʁɛʁ/
Audio (file)

Verb edit

distraire

to distract

Conjugation edit

This verb traditionally has no past historic or imperfect subjunctive. They would be formed on a -distray- root: *je distrayis, *que nous distrayissions etc. Forms using the 'a' endings of verbs in -er are now used when there is an unavoidable need to use these forms. The root -distrais- was used instead of -distray- in the 18th century, and remains in Swiss and Savoy dialects.

Conjugation of distraire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	distraire
present participle or gerund¹	simple	distrayant /dis.tʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.jɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		distrait /dis.tʁɛ/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	distrais /dis.tʁɛ/	distrais /dis.tʁɛ/	distrait /dis.tʁɛ/	distrayons /dis.tʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.jɔ̃/	distrayez /dis.tʁɛ.je/ or /dis.tʁe.je/	distraient /dis.tʁɛ/
	imperfect	distrayais /dis.tʁɛ.jɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.jɛ/	distrayais /dis.tʁɛ.jɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.jɛ/	distrayait /dis.tʁɛ.jɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.jɛ/	distrayions /dis.tʁɛj.jɔ̃/	distrayiez /dis.tʁɛj.je/	distrayaient /dis.tʁɛ.jɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.jɛ/
	past historic²	distrayai /dis.tʁɛe/	distrayas /dis.tʁɛa/	distraya /dis.tʁɛa/	distrayâmes /dis.tʁɛam/	distrayâtes /dis.tʁɛat/	distrayèrent /dis.tʁɛɛʁ/
	future	distrairai /dis.tʁɛ.ʁe/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁe/	distrairas /dis.tʁɛ.ʁa/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁa/	distraira /dis.tʁɛ.ʁa/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁa/	distrairons /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁɔ̃/	distrairez /dis.tʁɛ.ʁe/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁe/	distrairont /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	distrairais /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁɛ/	distrairais /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁɛ/	distrairait /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁɛ/	distrairions /dis.tʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	distrairiez /dis.tʁɛ.ʁje/ or /dis.tʁe.ʁje/	distrairaient /dis.tʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /dis.tʁe.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	distraie /dis.tʁɛ/	distraies /dis.tʁɛ/	distraie /dis.tʁɛ/	distrayions /dis.tʁɛj.jɔ̃/	distrayiez /dis.tʁɛj.je/	distraient /dis.tʁɛ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	distrayasse /dis.tʁɛas/	distrayasses /dis.tʁɛas/	distrayât /dis.tʁɛa/	distrayassions /dis.tʁɛa.sjɔ̃/	distrayassiez /dis.tʁɛa.sje/	distrayassent /dis.tʁɛas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	distrais /dis.tʁɛ/	—	distrayons /dis.tʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /dis.tʁe.jɔ̃/	distrayez /dis.tʁɛ.je/ or /dis.tʁe.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).