franchir

French

Etymology

From Old French, corresponding to franc +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁɑ̃.ʃiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

franchir

1. to clear, to cross (a line), to pass (an obstacle etc.); to get over (a fence)

   Des milliers de camions franchissent la frontière chaque jour.

   Thousands of trucks cross the border every day.

2. to cover (a distance)

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of franchir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	franchir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	franchissant /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		franchi /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	franchis /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchis /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchit /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchissons /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɔ̃/	franchissez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.se/	franchissent /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/
	imperfect	franchissais /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	franchissais /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	franchissait /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	franchissions /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	franchissiez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	franchissaient /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/
	past historic2	franchis /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchis /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchit /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchîmes /fʁɑ̃.ʃim/	franchîtes /fʁɑ̃.ʃit/	franchirent /fʁɑ̃.ʃiʁ/
	future	franchirai /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁe/	franchiras /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁa/	franchira /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁa/	franchirons /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/	franchirez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁe/	franchiront /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	franchirais /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	franchirais /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	franchirait /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	franchirions /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁjɔ̃/	franchiriez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.ʁje/	franchiraient /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.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	franchisse /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/	franchisses /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/	franchisse /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/	franchissions /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	franchissiez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	franchissent /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/
	imperfect2	franchisse /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/	franchisses /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/	franchît /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	franchissions /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	franchissiez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	franchissent /fʁɑ̃.ʃis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	franchis /fʁɑ̃.ʃi/	—	franchissons /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.sɔ̃/	franchissez /fʁɑ̃.ʃi.se/	—
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

• franchir le pas
• franchir le Rubicon
• franchissement

Further reading

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