souffler

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sofler, from Latin sufflāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.fle/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

souffler

1. to blow
2. to blow out

   Souffler des bougies. ― Blow out candles.

3. to whisper
4. (figuratively) to relax

Conjugation

Conjugation of souffler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	souffler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	soufflant /su.flɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		soufflé /su.fle/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	souffle /sufl/	souffles /sufl/	souffle /sufl/	soufflons /su.flɔ̃/	soufflez /su.fle/	soufflent /sufl/
	imperfect	soufflais /su.flɛ/	soufflais /su.flɛ/	soufflait /su.flɛ/	soufflions /su.fli.jɔ̃/	souffliez /su.fli.je/	soufflaient /su.flɛ/
	past historic2	soufflai /su.fle/	soufflas /su.fla/	souffla /su.fla/	soufflâmes /su.flam/	soufflâtes /su.flat/	soufflèrent /su.flɛʁ/
	future	soufflerai /su.flə.ʁe/	souffleras /su.flə.ʁa/	soufflera /su.flə.ʁa/	soufflerons /su.flə.ʁɔ̃/	soufflerez /su.flə.ʁe/	souffleront /su.flə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	soufflerais /su.flə.ʁɛ/	soufflerais /su.flə.ʁɛ/	soufflerait /su.flə.ʁɛ/	soufflerions /su.flə.ʁjɔ̃/	souffleriez /su.flə.ʁje/	souffleraient /su.flə.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	souffle /sufl/	souffles /sufl/	souffle /sufl/	soufflions /su.fli.jɔ̃/	souffliez /su.fli.je/	soufflent /sufl/
	imperfect2	soufflasse /su.flas/	soufflasses /su.flas/	soufflât /su.fla/	soufflassions /su.fla.sjɔ̃/	soufflassiez /su.fla.sje/	soufflassent /su.flas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	souffle /sufl/	—	soufflons /su.flɔ̃/	soufflez /su.fle/	—
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

• maïs soufflé
• ne souffler mot
• pommes soufflées
• soufflé
• souffle
• soufflement
• souffler le chaud et le froid
• soufflerie

 

Further reading

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