harceler

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French harceller, herseler. Equivalent to an extended form of herser (“to harrow”), from herse.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /aʁ.sə.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

harceler

1. to hassle; to bother; to disrupt; to harass

Usage notes

The mute (unaspirated) pronunciation is nonstandard but increasingly common, at least in France. See handicapé.

Conjugation

With the exception of appeler, jeter and their derived verbs, all verbs that used to double the consonants can now also be conjugated like amener.

Conjugation of harceler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	harceler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	harcelant /aʁ.sə.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		harcelé /aʁ.sə.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	harcelle or harcèle /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelles or harcèles /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelle or harcèle /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelons /aʁ.sə.lɔ̃/	harcelez /aʁ.sə.le/	harcellent or harcèlent /aʁ.sɛl/
	imperfect	harcelais /aʁ.sə.lɛ/	harcelais /aʁ.sə.lɛ/	harcelait /aʁ.sə.lɛ/	harcelions /aʁ.sə.ljɔ̃/	harceliez /aʁ.sə.lje/	harcelaient /aʁ.sə.lɛ/
	past historic2	harcelai /aʁ.sə.le/	harcelas /aʁ.sə.la/	harcela /aʁ.sə.la/	harcelâmes /aʁ.sə.lam/	harcelâtes /aʁ.sə.lat/	harcelèrent /aʁ.sə.lɛʁ/
	future	harcellerai or harcèlerai /aʁ.sɛl.ʁe/	harcelleras or harcèleras /aʁ.sɛl.ʁa/	harcellera or harcèlera /aʁ.sɛl.ʁa/	harcellerons or harcèlerons /aʁ.sɛl.ʁɔ̃/	harcellerez or harcèlerez /aʁ.sɛl.ʁe/	harcelleront or harcèleront /aʁ.sɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	harcellerais or harcèlerais /aʁ.sɛl.ʁɛ/	harcellerais or harcèlerais /aʁ.sɛl.ʁɛ/	harcellerait or harcèlerait /aʁ.sɛl.ʁɛ/	harcellerions or harcèlerions /aʁ.sɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /aʁ.se.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	harcelleriez or harcèleriez /aʁ.sɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /aʁ.se.lə.ʁje/	harcelleraient or harcèleraient /aʁ.sɛl.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	harcelle or harcèle /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelles or harcèles /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelle or harcèle /aʁ.sɛl/	harcelions /aʁ.sə.ljɔ̃/	harceliez /aʁ.sə.lje/	harcellent or harcèlent /aʁ.sɛl/
	imperfect2	harcelasse /aʁ.sə.las/	harcelasses /aʁ.sə.las/	harcelât /aʁ.sə.la/	harcelassions /aʁ.sə.la.sjɔ̃/	harcelassiez /aʁ.sə.la.sje/	harcelassent /aʁ.sə.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	harcelle or harcèle /aʁ.sɛl/	—	harcelons /aʁ.sə.lɔ̃/	harcelez /aʁ.sə.le/	—
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

• harcèlement
• harceleur

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• relâcher