remettre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French remetre, inherited from Latin remittō. By surface analysis, re- +‎ mettre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.mɛtʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʁ

Verb

remettre

1. to put back, replace
2. to put (clothing etc.) back on
3. to restart (machine etc.)
4. to hand over, tender, hand in, deliver (to someone) [with à]
5. to put off, postpone (until) [with à]
6. to remember
7. to add (more)
8. to forgive, remit
9. (euphemistic) to throw up
10. (pronominal) to get over, to recover (from something) [with de]
    • 1862, Victor Hugo, chapter 4, in Les Misérables, Tome I : Fantine, book 1:

      Quant à l'évêque, avoir vu la guillotine fut pour lui un choc, et il fut longtemps à s’en remettre.

      As for the bishop, seeing the guillotine had been a shock for him, and it took him a long time to get over it.

11. (in the passive voice) to be out of the woods [with de]
12. (pronominal) to take up again, start (to do something) again [with à]

    Il s'est remis à fumer. ― He's started smoking again.

    • 1943, Antoine Saint-Exupéry, chapter IV, in Le petit prince [The Little Prince], New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 20:

      C'est dur de se remettre au dessin, à mon âge, quand on n'a jamais fait d'autres tentatives que celle d'un boa fermé et celle d'un boa ouvert, à l'âge de six ans !

      It is hard to take up drawing again at my age, when I have never made any pictures except those of the boa constrictor from the outside and the boa constrictor from the inside, since I was six.

13. (pronominal) to get back

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like mettre. That means it is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is remis, not *remettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with remi-, not *remetti-.

Conjugation of remettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	remettre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	remettant /ʁə.mɛ.tɑ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		remis /ʁə.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	remet /ʁə.mɛ/	remettons /ʁə.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɔ̃/	remettez /ʁə.mɛ.te/ or /ʁə.me.te/	remettent /ʁə.mɛt/
	imperfect	remettais /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettais /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettait /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettions /ʁə.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tjɔ̃/	remettiez /ʁə.mɛ.tje/ or /ʁə.me.tje/	remettaient /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/
	past historic2	remis /ʁə.mi/	remis /ʁə.mi/	remit /ʁə.mi/	remîmes /ʁə.mim/	remîtes /ʁə.mit/	remirent /ʁə.miʁ/
	future	remettrai /ʁə.mɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.me.tʁe/	remettras /ʁə.mɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.me.tʁa/	remettra /ʁə.mɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.me.tʁa/	remettrons /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɔ̃/	remettrez /ʁə.mɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.me.tʁe/	remettront /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	remettrais /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrais /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrait /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrions /ʁə.mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁi.jɔ̃/	remettriez /ʁə.mɛ.tʁi.je/ or /ʁə.me.tʁi.je/	remettraient /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.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	remette /ʁə.mɛt/	remettes /ʁə.mɛt/	remette /ʁə.mɛt/	remettions /ʁə.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tjɔ̃/	remettiez /ʁə.mɛ.tje/ or /ʁə.me.tje/	remettent /ʁə.mɛt/
	imperfect2	remisse /ʁə.mis/	remisses /ʁə.mis/	remît /ʁə.mi/	remissions /ʁə.mi.sjɔ̃/	remissiez /ʁə.mi.sje/	remissent /ʁə.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	—	remettons /ʁə.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɔ̃/	remettez /ʁə.mɛ.te/ or /ʁə.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

• en remettre une couche
• remettre à sa place
• remettre en cause
• remettre en question
• remettre le couvert
• remettre les pendules à l'heure
• remettre sur le tapis

Related terms

• rémission

Further reading

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

Middle French

Alternative forms

• remectre
• remestre
• remetre

Etymology

Old French remetre, equivalent to re- + mettre (“to put”).

Verb

remettre

1. (transitive) to put back