fouiller

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Vulgar Latin *fodiclāre < *fodiculāre, from Latin fodicāre, from fodere. Compare fouir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fu.je/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

fouiller

1. (transitive) to search (place, thing)
   • 1873, Émile Zola, Le Ventre de Paris:

     Il fouillait ses souvenirs, ne se rappelait pas une heure de plénitude.

     He searched his memories and recalled not a single hour of contentment.

2. (transitive) to search, frisk (person)
3. (transitive) to go into, investigate (question, issue)
4. (intransitive) to rummage, delve (dans in)

   J’ai fouillé dans mon sac, mais je n’ai pas pu trouver mon portefeuille.

   I rummaged through my bag, but I couldn't find my wallet.

5. (reflexive) to go through one's pockets
6. (transitive) to dig

Conjugation

Conjugation of fouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	fouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	fouillant /fu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		fouillé /fu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fouille /fuj/	fouilles /fuj/	fouille /fuj/	fouillons /fu.jɔ̃/	fouillez /fu.je/	fouillent /fuj/
	imperfect	fouillais /fu.jɛ/	fouillais /fu.jɛ/	fouillait /fu.jɛ/	fouillions /fuj.jɔ̃/	fouilliez /fuj.je/	fouillaient /fu.jɛ/
	past historic2	fouillai /fu.je/	fouillas /fu.ja/	fouilla /fu.ja/	fouillâmes /fu.jam/	fouillâtes /fu.jat/	fouillèrent /fu.jɛʁ/
	future	fouillerai /fuj.ʁe/	fouilleras /fuj.ʁa/	fouillera /fuj.ʁa/	fouillerons /fuj.ʁɔ̃/	fouillerez /fuj.ʁe/	fouilleront /fuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	fouillerais /fuj.ʁɛ/	fouillerais /fuj.ʁɛ/	fouillerait /fuj.ʁɛ/	fouillerions /fu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	fouilleriez /fu.jə.ʁje/	fouilleraient /fuj.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	fouille /fuj/	fouilles /fuj/	fouille /fuj/	fouillions /fuj.jɔ̃/	fouilliez /fuj.je/	fouillent /fuj/
	imperfect2	fouillasse /fu.jas/	fouillasses /fu.jas/	fouillât /fu.ja/	fouillassions /fu.ja.sjɔ̃/	fouillassiez /fu.ja.sje/	fouillassent /fu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fouille /fuj/	—	fouillons /fu.jɔ̃/	fouillez /fu.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).

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• frouille, frouillé