rétorquer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin retorquēre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁe.tɔʁ.ke/

• Audio:

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Verb

rétorquer

1. to retort

Conjugation

Conjugation of rétorquer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	rétorquer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rétorquant /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		rétorqué /ʁe.tɔʁ.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	rétorque /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorques /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorque /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorquons /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɔ̃/	rétorquez /ʁe.tɔʁ.ke/	rétorquent /ʁe.tɔʁk/
	imperfect	rétorquais /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɛ/	rétorquais /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɛ/	rétorquait /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɛ/	rétorquions /ʁe.tɔʁ.kjɔ̃/	rétorquiez /ʁe.tɔʁ.kje/	rétorquaient /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɛ/
	past historic2	rétorquai /ʁe.tɔʁ.ke/	rétorquas /ʁe.tɔʁ.ka/	rétorqua /ʁe.tɔʁ.ka/	rétorquâmes /ʁe.tɔʁ.kam/	rétorquâtes /ʁe.tɔʁ.kat/	rétorquèrent /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɛʁ/
	future	rétorquerai /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁe/	rétorqueras /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁa/	rétorquera /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁa/	rétorquerons /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁɔ̃/	rétorquerez /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁe/	rétorqueront /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rétorquerais /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁɛ/	rétorquerais /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁɛ/	rétorquerait /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁɛ/	rétorquerions /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	rétorqueriez /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.ʁje/	rétorqueraient /ʁe.tɔʁ.kə.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	rétorque /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorques /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorque /ʁe.tɔʁk/	rétorquions /ʁe.tɔʁ.kjɔ̃/	rétorquiez /ʁe.tɔʁ.kje/	rétorquent /ʁe.tɔʁk/
	imperfect2	rétorquasse /ʁe.tɔʁ.kas/	rétorquasses /ʁe.tɔʁ.kas/	rétorquât /ʁe.tɔʁ.ka/	rétorquassions /ʁe.tɔʁ.ka.sjɔ̃/	rétorquassiez /ʁe.tɔʁ.ka.sje/	rétorquassent /ʁe.tɔʁ.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	rétorque /ʁe.tɔʁk/	—	rétorquons /ʁe.tɔʁ.kɔ̃/	rétorquez /ʁe.tɔʁ.ke/	—
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

• retorte

Further reading

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