rayer

See also: raþer

French

Etymology

From raie +‎ -er. Found in Old French as roier. Cf. however also Old French raier, rayer, possibly from Latin radiāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.je/ ~ /ʁe.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

rayer

1. to line, to make lines on, to mark with lines (e.g. a piece of paper)
2. to cross out, to cross off (remove something from a list)

   Quand il arrivera, tu pourras rayer son nom. ― When he arrives, you can cross off his name.

3. to wipe off (remove)

   Je l’ai rayé du tableau. ― I wiped it off the board.

   J’ai rayé de la carte. ― I wiped off the map

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of rayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	rayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rayant /ʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /ʁe.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		rayé /ʁɛ.je/ or /ʁe.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	raye or raie /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	rayes or raies /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	raye or raie /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	rayons /ʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ʁe.jɔ̃/	rayez /ʁɛ.je/ or /ʁe.je/	rayent or raient /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/
	imperfect	rayais /ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁe.jɛ/	rayais /ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁe.jɛ/	rayait /ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁe.jɛ/	rayions /ʁɛj.jɔ̃/	rayiez /ʁɛj.je/	rayaient /ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁe.jɛ/
	past historic2	rayai /ʁɛ.je/ or /ʁe.je/	rayas /ʁɛ.ja/ or /ʁe.ja/	raya /ʁɛ.ja/ or /ʁe.ja/	rayâmes /ʁɛ.jam/ or /ʁe.jam/	rayâtes /ʁɛ.jat/ or /ʁe.jat/	rayèrent /ʁɛ.jɛʁ/ or /ʁe.jɛʁ/
	future	rayerai or raierai /ʁɛj.ʁe/ or /ʁɛ.ʁe/ or /ʁe.ʁe/	rayeras or raieras /ʁɛj.ʁa/ or /ʁɛ.ʁa/ or /ʁe.ʁa/	rayera or raiera /ʁɛj.ʁa/ or /ʁɛ.ʁa/ or /ʁe.ʁa/	rayerons or raierons /ʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ʁɔ̃/	rayerez or raierez /ʁɛj.ʁe/ or /ʁɛ.ʁe/ or /ʁe.ʁe/	rayeront or raieront /ʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rayerais or raierais /ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ʁɛ/	rayerais or raierais /ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ʁɛ/	rayerait or raierait /ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ʁɛ/	rayerions or raierions /ʁɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	rayeriez or raieriez /ʁɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /ʁe.jə.ʁje/ or /ʁɛ.ʁje/ or /ʁe.ʁje/	rayeraient or raieraient /ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.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	raye or raie /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	rayes or raies /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	raye or raie /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	rayions /ʁɛj.jɔ̃/	rayiez /ʁɛj.je/	rayent or raient /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/
	imperfect2	rayasse /ʁɛ.jas/ or /ʁe.jas/	rayasses /ʁɛ.jas/ or /ʁe.jas/	rayât /ʁɛ.ja/ or /ʁe.ja/	rayassions /ʁɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ja.sjɔ̃/	rayassiez /ʁɛ.ja.sje/ or /ʁe.ja.sje/	rayassent /ʁɛ.jas/ or /ʁe.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	raye or raie /ʁɛj/ or /ʁɛ/	—	rayons /ʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ʁe.jɔ̃/	rayez /ʁɛ.je/ or /ʁe.je/	—
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

• avoir les dents qui rayent le parquet
• rayé
• rayure

 

Further reading

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