haïr

See also: hair

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French haïr (“to hate”), from Old French hair (“to hate”) (compare Old French enhadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to hate”), from Proto-Germanic *hatjaną (“to hunt, rush, attack”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“strong emotion”). Akin to Old High German hezzen (“to hunt, pursue”), Old English hettan (“to pursue, persecute”), Old English hete (“hate, hatred”). More at hate, heinous.

Pronunciation

• (Europe) ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /a.iʁ/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• (Canada) ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /a.iʁ/, /a.jiʁ/
• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): /ha.ir/, /ha.jir/, /ha.hir/
• Rhymes: -iʁ

Verb

haïr

1. (transitive) to hate

Usage notes

• In Standard French, the h of haïr is said to be aspiré (aspirate) and therefore shows that elisions of vowels and liaisons are not possible, i.e. “I hate you (sg.)” is je te hais, not je t’hais.
• In Canadian French, the past historic is used as the present tense for the first, second, and third person singular subject pronouns. Also, the "h" is not aspirated, therefore making elisions possible. For example: "I hate you" is "je t'haïs." Note that this usage is vernacular and not standard. Some Canadian French speakers may even say "je t'haguis", which is also nonstandard and considered even more informal/basilectal than "je t'haïs."
• In Louisiana, the "h" retains its pronunciation as the consonant /h/.

Conjugation

This verb is spelled as if conjugated like finir, but has a diaeresis throughout its conjugation (including where the circumflex would normally be used) except in the singular indicative present, whose forms are pronounced /ɛ/ in Standard French instead of /ai/, a pronunciation nonetheless often found in informal speech.

Conjugation of haïr (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	haïr
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	haïssant /a.i.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		haï /a.i/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	hais /ɛ/	hais /ɛ/	hait /ɛ/	haïssons /a.i.sɔ̃/	haïssez /a.i.se/	haïssent /a.is/
	imperfect	haïssais /a.i.sɛ/	haïssais /a.i.sɛ/	haïssait /a.i.sɛ/	haïssions /a.i.sjɔ̃/	haïssiez /a.i.sje/	haïssaient /a.i.sɛ/
	past historic2	haïs /a.i/	haïs /a.i/	haït /a.i/	haïmes /a.im/	haïtes /a.it/	haïrent /a.iʁ/
	future	haïrai /a.i.ʁe/	haïras /a.i.ʁa/	haïra /a.i.ʁa/	haïrons /a.i.ʁɔ̃/	haïrez /a.i.ʁe/	haïront /a.i.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	haïrais /a.i.ʁɛ/	haïrais /a.i.ʁɛ/	haïrait /a.i.ʁɛ/	haïrions /a.i.ʁjɔ̃/	haïriez /a.i.ʁje/	haïraient /a.i.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	haïsse /a.is/	haïsses /a.is/	haïsse /a.is/	haïssions /a.i.sjɔ̃/	haïssiez /a.i.sje/	haïssent /a.is/
	imperfect2	haïsse /a.is/	haïsses /a.is/	haït /a.i/	haïssions /a.i.sjɔ̃/	haïssiez /a.i.sje/	haïssent /a.is/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	hais /ɛ/	—	haïssons /a.i.sɔ̃/	haïssez /a.i.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).

See also

• dédaigner
• détester

Further reading

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

Middle French

Verb

haïr

1. (transitive) to hate

Old French

Verb

haïr

1. Alternative form of hair

Usage notes

• Diaereses are used by some, but not all scholars, to show that two or more vowels do not constitute a diphthong or triphthong. See Appendix:Old French spellings for more information.