promettre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French prometre, an early borrowing from Latin promittere, adapted to or based on French mettre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.mɛtʁ/

• audio

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Verb

promettre

1. to promise
   • 1856, Francis Linossier, Les mystères de Lyon, page 181:

     S’il ne dépend que de moi, je vous promets de vous y faire arriver promptement.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   Je te promets que je te rendrai ton argent avant dimanche. ― I promise I'll give you your money back before Sunday.

   J’ai promis à mon père de ne rien dire à ma mère. ― I promised my dad not to tell my mom.

   1. (reflexive) to promise oneself
2. (intransitive) to be promising, to be hopeful

   C’est une athlète qui promet. ― She is a promising athlete.

   Ça promet ! ― That bodes well!

3. (ditransitive reflexive) to hope (for)
   • 2018, Zaz, on s'en remet jamais

     Est-ce que tout ce que l’on se promet a pu se perdre dans un désert ? Ne reste-t-il que des poussières une fois que l’amour est absent.

     Could everything we hope for have been lost in a desert? Nothing but dust remains once the love is lost.

4. (reflexive) to resolve (to)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like mettre. That means it is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is promis, not *promettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with promi-, not *prometti-.

Conjugation of promettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	promettre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	promettant /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɑ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		promis /pʁɔ.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/	promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/	promet /pʁɔ.mɛ/	promettons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɔ̃/	promettez /pʁɔ.mɛ.te/ or /pʁɔ.me.te/	promettent /pʁɔ.mɛt/
	imperfect	promettais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/	promettais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/	promettait /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/	promettions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tjɔ̃/	promettiez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tje/ or /pʁɔ.me.tje/	promettaient /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɛ/
	past historic2	promis /pʁɔ.mi/	promis /pʁɔ.mi/	promit /pʁɔ.mi/	promîmes /pʁɔ.mim/	promîtes /pʁɔ.mit/	promirent /pʁɔ.miʁ/
	future	promettrai /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁe/	promettras /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁa/	promettra /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁa/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁa/	promettrons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɔ̃/	promettrez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁe/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁe/	promettront /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	promettrais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/	promettrais /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/	promettrait /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/	promettrions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁi.jɔ̃/	promettriez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁi.je/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁi.je/	promettraient /pʁɔ.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pʁɔ.me.tʁɛ/
(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	promette /pʁɔ.mɛt/	promettes /pʁɔ.mɛt/	promette /pʁɔ.mɛt/	promettions /pʁɔ.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tjɔ̃/	promettiez /pʁɔ.mɛ.tje/ or /pʁɔ.me.tje/	promettent /pʁɔ.mɛt/
	imperfect2	promisse /pʁɔ.mis/	promisses /pʁɔ.mis/	promît /pʁɔ.mi/	promissions /pʁɔ.mi.sjɔ̃/	promissiez /pʁɔ.mi.sje/	promissent /pʁɔ.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	promets /pʁɔ.mɛ/	—	promettons /pʁɔ.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /pʁɔ.me.tɔ̃/	promettez /pʁɔ.mɛ.te/ or /pʁɔ.me.te/	—
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

• chose promise, chose due
• ne pas promettre poires molles
• promesse
• promettre monts et merveilles
• prometteur
• promis juré
• promis, juré, craché
• terre promise

Related terms

• mettre

Further reading

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

Norman

Etymology

From Old French prometre, an early borrowing from Latin prōmittō, prōmittere (“send forth; promise”).

Verb

promettre

1. (Jersey) to promise