glisser

French

Etymology

From Middle French glisser, from Old French glicier (“to slip, slide, glide”), from a merger of Old French glacier (“to slip, slide”) and Old French gliier, glier (“to slip, slide, glide”), from Frankish *glīdan (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Germanic *glīdaną (“to glide, slide”). More at glide.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡli.se/

• audio

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Verb

glisser

1. (intransitive) to slip, to slide, to skid

   se glisser dans ses vêtements ― to slip into one's clothes

   Des erreurs peuvent s’être glissées. ― Some mistakes could have slipped in.

2. (intransitive) to glide
3. (music) to slide

Conjugation

Conjugation of glisser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	glisser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	glissant /ɡli.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		glissé /ɡli.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	glisse /ɡlis/	glisses /ɡlis/	glisse /ɡlis/	glissons /ɡli.sɔ̃/	glissez /ɡli.se/	glissent /ɡlis/
	imperfect	glissais /ɡli.sɛ/	glissais /ɡli.sɛ/	glissait /ɡli.sɛ/	glissions /ɡli.sjɔ̃/	glissiez /ɡli.sje/	glissaient /ɡli.sɛ/
	past historic2	glissai /ɡli.se/	glissas /ɡli.sa/	glissa /ɡli.sa/	glissâmes /ɡli.sam/	glissâtes /ɡli.sat/	glissèrent /ɡli.sɛʁ/
	future	glisserai /ɡli.sʁe/	glisseras /ɡli.sʁa/	glissera /ɡli.sʁa/	glisserons /ɡli.sʁɔ̃/	glisserez /ɡli.sʁe/	glisseront /ɡli.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	glisserais /ɡli.sʁɛ/	glisserais /ɡli.sʁɛ/	glisserait /ɡli.sʁɛ/	glisserions /ɡli.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	glisseriez /ɡli.sə.ʁje/	glisseraient /ɡli.sʁɛ/
(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	glisse /ɡlis/	glisses /ɡlis/	glisse /ɡlis/	glissions /ɡli.sjɔ̃/	glissiez /ɡli.sje/	glissent /ɡlis/
	imperfect2	glissasse /ɡli.sas/	glissasses /ɡli.sas/	glissât /ɡli.sa/	glissassions /ɡli.sa.sjɔ̃/	glissassiez /ɡli.sa.sje/	glissassent /ɡli.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	glisse /ɡlis/	—	glissons /ɡli.sɔ̃/	glissez /ɡli.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

• glissade
• glissant

Descendants

• → Italian: glissare

Further reading

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