souhaiter

French

The Wish (1841) by Theodor von Holst.

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sohaidier, ultimately from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *subhaitare (“vow with little commitment (lit. 'under-promise')”), a hybrid of Latin subtus "under" + Frankish *haitan (“to order, promise”), from Proto-Germanic *haitaną. Compare Picard souhédhier, and for the latter etymon see Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (haitan, “to address, call”), Old High German heizzan, Old English hātan (“to call, order”) (thence see dialectal English hight and hote) and Old Norse heita (“to call, name”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɛ.te/, /swe.te/

• audio

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Verb

souhaiter

1. to wish (for); to hope (for)
   • Sinsemilia, Tout le bonheur du monde

     On vous souhaite tout le bonheur du monde
     Pour aujourd’hui comme pour demain
     Que votre soleil éclaircisse l’ombre
     Qu’il brille d’amour au quotidien

     We wish you all the happiness in the world
     For today as for tomorrow
     May your sun light up the shadows
     May it shine love everyday

2. to wish someone well, particularly in a complimentary or polite way
3. (rare, dated) to desire someone's presence

Conjugation

Conjugation of souhaiter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	souhaiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	souhaitant /swɛ.tɑ̃/ or /swe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		souhaité /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaites /swɛt/	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaitons /swɛ.tɔ̃/ or /swe.tɔ̃/	souhaitez /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/	souhaitent /swɛt/
	imperfect	souhaitais /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitais /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitait /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/	souhaitions /swɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /swe.tjɔ̃/	souhaitiez /swɛ.tje/ or /swe.tje/	souhaitaient /swɛ.tɛ/ or /swe.tɛ/
	past historic2	souhaitai /swɛ.te/ or /swe.te/	souhaitas /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaita /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaitâmes /swɛ.tam/ or /swe.tam/	souhaitâtes /swɛ.tat/ or /swe.tat/	souhaitèrent /swɛ.tɛʁ/ or /swe.tɛʁ/
	future	souhaiterai /swɛ.tʁe/ or /swe.tʁe/	souhaiteras /swɛ.tʁa/ or /swe.tʁa/	souhaitera /swɛ.tʁa/ or /swe.tʁa/	souhaiterons /swɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /swe.tʁɔ̃/	souhaiterez /swɛ.tʁe/ or /swe.tʁe/	souhaiteront /swɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /swe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	souhaiterais /swɛ.tʁɛ/ or /swe.tʁɛ/	souhaiterais /swɛ.tʁɛ/ or /swe.tʁɛ/	souhaiterait /swɛ.tʁɛ/ or /swe.tʁɛ/	souhaiterions /swɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /swe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	souhaiteriez /swɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /swe.tə.ʁje/	souhaiteraient /swɛ.tʁɛ/ or /swe.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	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaites /swɛt/	souhaite /swɛt/	souhaitions /swɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /swe.tjɔ̃/	souhaitiez /swɛ.tje/ or /swe.tje/	souhaitent /swɛt/
	imperfect2	souhaitasse /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/	souhaitasses /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/	souhaitât /swɛ.ta/ or /swe.ta/	souhaitassions /swɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /swe.ta.sjɔ̃/	souhaitassiez /swɛ.ta.sje/ or /swe.ta.sje/	souhaitassent /swɛ.tas/ or /swe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	souhaite /swɛt/	—	souhaitons /swɛ.tɔ̃/ or /swe.tɔ̃/	souhaitez /swɛ.te/ or /swe.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).

Related terms

• souhait

Descendants

• → Ladino: suetar

Further reading

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