feindre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛ̃dʁ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland):

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Verb

feindre

1. (transitive or catenative) to fake; to feign

   Synonym: faire semblant

   feindre quelque chose ― to fake something

   feindre de dormir ― to feign sleeping

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like peindre. It uses the same endings as rendre or vendre, but its -nd- becomes -gn- before a vowel, and its past participle ends in 't' instead of a vowel.

Conjugation of feindre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	feindre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	feignant /fɛ.ɲɑ̃/ or /fe.ɲɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		feint /fɛ̃/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	feins /fɛ̃/	feins /fɛ̃/	feint /fɛ̃/	feignons /fɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /fe.ɲɔ̃/	feignez /fɛ.ɲe/ or /fe.ɲe/	feignent /fɛɲ/
	imperfect	feignais /fɛ.ɲɛ/ or /fe.ɲɛ/	feignais /fɛ.ɲɛ/ or /fe.ɲɛ/	feignait /fɛ.ɲɛ/ or /fe.ɲɛ/	feignions /fɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /fe.ɲjɔ̃/	feigniez /fɛ.ɲje/ or /fe.ɲje/	feignaient /fɛ.ɲɛ/ or /fe.ɲɛ/
	past historic2	feignis /fɛ.ɲi/ or /fe.ɲi/	feignis /fɛ.ɲi/ or /fe.ɲi/	feignit /fɛ.ɲi/ or /fe.ɲi/	feignîmes /fɛ.ɲim/ or /fe.ɲim/	feignîtes /fɛ.ɲit/ or /fe.ɲit/	feignirent /fɛ.ɲiʁ/ or /fe.ɲiʁ/
	future	feindrai /fɛ̃.dʁe/	feindras /fɛ̃.dʁa/	feindra /fɛ̃.dʁa/	feindrons /fɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/	feindrez /fɛ̃.dʁe/	feindront /fɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	feindrais /fɛ̃.dʁɛ/	feindrais /fɛ̃.dʁɛ/	feindrait /fɛ̃.dʁɛ/	feindrions /fɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	feindriez /fɛ̃.dʁi.je/	feindraient /fɛ̃.dʁɛ/
(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	feigne /fɛɲ/	feignes /fɛɲ/	feigne /fɛɲ/	feignions /fɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /fe.ɲjɔ̃/	feigniez /fɛ.ɲje/ or /fe.ɲje/	feignent /fɛɲ/
	imperfect2	feignisse /fɛ.ɲis/ or /fe.ɲis/	feignisses /fɛ.ɲis/ or /fe.ɲis/	feignît /fɛ.ɲi/ or /fe.ɲi/	feignissions /fɛ.ɲi.sjɔ̃/ or /fe.ɲi.sjɔ̃/	feignissiez /fɛ.ɲi.sje/ or /fe.ɲi.sje/	feignissent /fɛ.ɲis/ or /fe.ɲis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	feins /fɛ̃/	—	feignons /fɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /fe.ɲɔ̃/	feignez /fɛ.ɲe/ or /fe.ɲe/	—
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

• feinte
• fiction

Further reading

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

Old French

Alternative forms

• faindre

Etymology

From Latin fingere, present active infinitive of fingō.

Verb

feindre

1. to feign

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb ends in a palatal stem, so there is an extra i before the e of some endings. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of feindre (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		feindre			avoir feint
gerund		en feignant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		feignant
past participle		feint
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	feing	feinz	feint	feignons	feigniez	feignent
	imperfect	feignoie, feigneie	feignoies, feigneies	feignoit, feigneit	feigniiens, feigniens	feigniiez, feigniez	feignoient, feigneient
	preterite	feins	feinsis	feinst	feinsimes	feinsistes	feinstrent
	future	feindrai	feindras	feindra	feindrons	feindroiz, feindreiz, feindrez	feindront
	conditional	feindroie, feindreie	feindroies, feindreies	feindroit, feindreit	feindriiens, feindriens	feindriiez, feindriez	feindroient, feindreient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	feigne	feignes	feigne	feigniens, feignons	feigniez	feignent
	imperfect	feinsisse	feinsisses	feinsist	feinsissons, feinsissiens	feinsissoiz, feinsissez, feinsissiez	feinsissent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	feing	—	feignons	feigniez	—

Descendants

• English: feign (borrowing)
• French: feindre

References

• Etymology and history of “feindre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (feindre)