lisser

French

Etymology

Probably a borrowing from Italian liscio. Other theories include a crossing of Latin lixāre and allīsus, or of ultimately Germanic origin.

See also Spanish and Portuguese liso, Catalan llis, Italian liscio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

lisser

1. to smooth
2. to level
3. (of hair) to straighten

Conjugation

Conjugation of lisser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	lisser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	lissant /li.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		lissé /li.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	lisse /lis/	lisses /lis/	lisse /lis/	lissons /li.sɔ̃/	lissez /li.se/	lissent /lis/
	imperfect	lissais /li.sɛ/	lissais /li.sɛ/	lissait /li.sɛ/	lissions /li.sjɔ̃/	lissiez /li.sje/	lissaient /li.sɛ/
	past historic2	lissai /li.se/	lissas /li.sa/	lissa /li.sa/	lissâmes /li.sam/	lissâtes /li.sat/	lissèrent /li.sɛʁ/
	future	lisserai /li.sʁe/	lisseras /li.sʁa/	lissera /li.sʁa/	lisserons /li.sʁɔ̃/	lisserez /li.sʁe/	lisseront /li.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	lisserais /li.sʁɛ/	lisserais /li.sʁɛ/	lisserait /li.sʁɛ/	lisserions /li.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	lisseriez /li.sə.ʁje/	lisseraient /li.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	lisse /lis/	lisses /lis/	lisse /lis/	lissions /li.sjɔ̃/	lissiez /li.sje/	lissent /lis/
	imperfect2	lissasse /li.sas/	lissasses /li.sas/	lissât /li.sa/	lissassions /li.sa.sjɔ̃/	lissassiez /li.sa.sje/	lissassent /li.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	lisse /lis/	—	lissons /li.sɔ̃/	lissez /li.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).

Related terms

• lisse
• lissage

Further reading

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