souvenir

See also: Souvenir

English

Souvenirs from around the world. Clockwise from top, Empire State Building, New York City, New York, USA; Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Queen's Guards, London, United Kingdom; Eiffel Tower, Paris, France.

Etymology

From French souvenir (literally “memory”); compare memento.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: sou‧ve‧nir
• IPA^(key): /ˌsuːvəˈnɪə(ɹ)/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Noun

souvenir (plural souvenirs)

1. An item of sentimental value, to remember an event or location.

   Synonyms: keepsake, memento, memorabilia

   • 2005, Steven Church, Guinness Book of Me, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN), page 138:

     The tourists stuck to the safe confines of the gift shop, where they bought souvenir combs, shot glasses, oversize pencils, and blocks of cedar painted with rhyming poems and shellacked to a high gloss.

Alternative forms

• souvenier (obsolete)

Translations

item of sentimental value to remember an event or location

• Albanian: suvenir m
• Arabic: تَذْكار‎ m (taḏkār)
• Armenian: հուշանվեր (hy) (hušanver)
• Azerbaijani: xatirə (az), suvenir
• Belarusian: сувені́р m (suvjenír), сувэні́р m (suvenír) (taraškievica)
• Bengali: স্মারকগ্রন্থ (śmarôkôgrônth)
• Bulgarian: сувени́р m (suvenír)
• Catalan: record (ca) m
• Cebuano: handomanan
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 紀念品, 纪念品 (gei² nim⁶ ban²)

  Mandarin: 紀念品 (zh), 纪念品 (zh) (jìniànpǐn)

  Min Nan: 紀念品, 纪念品 (kí-liām-phín)

• Czech: suvenýr (cs) m
• Danish: souvenir (da) c
• Dutch: aandenken (nl) n, souvenir (nl) n
• Esperanto: memoraĵo
• Estonian: suveniir
• Faroese: minnislutur m
• Finnish: matkamuisto (fi), muistoesine (fi)
• French: souvenir (fr) m
• Georgian: სახსოვარი (saxsovari)
• German: Andenken (de) n, Reisemitbringsel n, Souvenir (de) n, Erinnerungsstück (de) n, Mitbringsel (de) n
• Greek: ενθύμιο (el) n (enthýmio)
• Hebrew: מַזכֶּרֶת‎ (he) m (mazkeret)
• Hindi: यादगार (hi) f (yādgār)
• Hungarian: szuvenír (hu)
• Icelandic: minjagripur m, minningargripur m
• Ido: suveniro (io), memorigilo (io), memorigivo (io)
• Indonesian: suvenir (id)
• Irish: cuimhneachán m
• Italian: ricordo (it) m
• Japanese: 土産 (ja) (みやげ, miyage), 記念品 (きねんひん, kinenhin), 記念物 (ja) (きねんぶつ, kinenbutsu)
• Kazakh: кәдесый (kädesıy)
• Khmer: អនុស្សាវរីយ (km) (ʼaʼnuhsaavaʼrii)
• Korean: 기념품(記念品) (ko) (ginyeompum), 선물(膳物) (ko) (seonmul), 기념물(紀念物) (ko) (ginyeommul)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: xatire (ku)

• Kyrgyz: сувенир (suvenir), азембелек (azembelek)

• Lao: ທີ່ລະລຶກ (thī la lưk)
• Latin: mnēmosȳnum n
• Latvian: suvenīrs m
• Lithuanian: suvenyras m
• Macedonian: сувенир m (suvenir)
• Maori: manatunga
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: бэлэг дурсгал (beleg dursgal)

• Navajo: bee ééhániihii
• Nepali: स्मारिका (smārikā)
• Norman: souv'nîn m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: suvenir m

  Nynorsk: suvenir m

• Pashto: يادګار‎ m (yādgā́r)
• Persian: یادگاری‎ (fa) (yâdegâri, yâdgâri), یادگار‎ (fa) (yâdegâr, yâdgâr), سوغاتی‎ (souğâti), سوغات‎ (fa) (sowğât)
• Plautdietsch: Aunjedenkj n
• Polish: pamiątka (pl) f
• Portuguese: suvenir (pt) m
• Romanian: suvenir (ro) n
• Russian: сувени́р (ru) m (suvenír)
• Scottish Gaelic: cuimhneachan m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сувѐнӣр m, у̏спомена f

  Roman: suvènīr (sh) m ȕspomena (sh) f

• Slovak: suvenír m
• Slovene: spominek m
• Spanish: recuerdo (es) m
• Swedish: souvenir (sv) c
• Tagalog: daol, pang-alaala
• Tajik: тӯҳфа (tühfa), савғотӣ (savġotī), савғот (savġot), ёдгор (yodgor)
• Thai: ของฝาก (kɔ̌ɔng-fàak)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Tocharian B: epyacäññe
• Turkish: hatıra (tr), hediyelik eşya (tr)
• Turkmen: suwenir, ýadygärlik
• Ukrainian: сувені́р m (suvenír)
• Urdu: یادگار‎ (ur) f (yādgār)
• Uyghur: خاتىرە بويۇم‎ (xatire boyum)
• Uzbek: suvenir (uz), yodgorlik (uz), esdalik (uz)
• Vietnamese: đồ lưu niệm
• Yiddish: אָנדענק‎ m (ondenk)

Verb

souvenir (third-person singular simple present souvenirs, present participle souveniring, simple past and past participle souvenired)

1. (transitive) To take (something) as a souvenir, especially illicitly, for example during wartime.
   • 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 57:

     "Doubletime up to the ville and souvenir me one cute orphan, man, but be sure you get a dirty one, a really skuzzy one."

   • 2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 84:

     The word is they're waiting for some blokes who had gone off souveniring before the order was announced.

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French souvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.vəˈnir/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sou‧ve‧nir

Noun

souvenir n (plural souvenirs, diminutive souvenirtje n)

1. souvenir

Synonyms

• aandenken
• gedachtenis

Descendants

• → Indonesian: suvenir

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French

Etymology

From Middle French soubvenir, from Old French sovenir, from Latin subvenīre, present active infinitive of subveniō (“come to mind, occur to”), from sub + veniō. Doublet of subvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suv.niʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

souvenir

1. (reflexive, transitive with de) to remember

   Synonym: rappeler

   Je me souviens de toi. ― I remember you.

   Est-ce que vous vous souvenez de ce que vous m'avez dit la semaine dernière ?

   Do you remember what you told me last week?

Conjugation

This is a verb in a group of -ir verbs. All verbs ending in -venir, such as convenir and devenir, are conjugated this way. Such verbs are the only verbs whose the past historic and subjunctive imperfect endings do not start in one of these thematic vowels (-a-, -i-, -u-).

Conjugation of se souvenir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	se souvenir
	compound	s’être + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	se souvenant /sə suv.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant or étant + past participle
past participle		souvenu /suv.ny/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	me souviens /mə su.vjɛ̃/	te souviens /tə su.vjɛ̃/	se souvient /sə su.vjɛ̃/	nous souvenons /nu suv.nɔ̃/	vous souvenez /vu suv.ne/	se souviennent /sə su.vjɛn/
	imperfect	me souvenais /mə suv.nɛ/	te souvenais /tə suv.nɛ/	se souvenait /sə suv.nɛ/	nous souvenions /nu su.və.njɔ̃/	vous souveniez /vu su.və.nje/	se souvenaient /sə suv.nɛ/
	past historic2	me souvins /mə su.vɛ̃/	te souvins /tə su.vɛ̃/	se souvint /sə su.vɛ̃/	nous souvînmes /nu su.vɛ̃m/	vous souvîntes /vu su.vɛ̃t/	se souvinrent /sə su.vɛ̃ʁ/
	future	me souviendrai /mə su.vjɛ̃.dʁe/	te souviendras /tə su.vjɛ̃.dʁa/	se souviendra /sə su.vjɛ̃.dʁa/	nous souviendrons /nu su.vjɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/	vous souviendrez /vu su.vjɛ̃.dʁe/	se souviendront /sə su.vjɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	me souviendrais /mə su.vjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	te souviendrais /tə su.vjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	se souviendrait /sə su.vjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	nous souviendrions /nu su.vjɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	vous souviendriez /vu su.vjɛ̃.dʁi.je/	se souviendraient /sə su.vjɛ̃.dʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of s’être + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of s’être + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of s’être + past participle
	future perfect	future of s’être + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of s’être + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	me souvienne /mə su.vjɛn/	te souviennes /tə su.vjɛn/	se souvienne /sə su.vjɛn/	nous souvenions /nu su.və.njɔ̃/	vous souveniez /vu su.və.nje/	se souviennent /sə su.vjɛn/
	imperfect2	me souvinsse /mə su.vɛ̃s/	te souvinsses /tə su.vɛ̃s/	se souvînt /sə su.vɛ̃/	nous souvinssions /nu su.vɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	vous souvinssiez /vu su.vɛ̃.sje/	se souvinssent /sə su.vɛ̃s/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of s’être + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of s’être + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	souviens-toi /su.vjɛ̃.twa/	—	souvenons-nous /suv.nɔ̃.nu/	souvenez-vous /suv.ne.vu/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of s’être + past participle	—	simple imperative of s’être + past participle	simple imperative of s’être + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is only usable with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• se souvenir

Noun

souvenir m (plural souvenirs)

1. memory (mental picture)

   Je n'ai pas le souvenir de t'avoir dit ça…

   I don't remember telling you that…

   (literally, “I don't have the memory of me having told you that…”)

2. souvenir

   J'ai ramené un souvenir de Paris.

   I have brought back a souvenir of Paris.

Derived terms

• jour du Souvenir

Descendants

• → English: souvenir
• → Danish: souvenir
• → Dutch: souvenir
• → German: Souvenir
• → Italian: souvenir
• → Luxembourgish: Souvenir
• → Spanish: souvenir
• → Greek: σουβενίρ (souvenír)

Further reading

• “souvenir” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Etymology

From French souvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.veˈnir/
• Rhymes: -ir

Noun

souvenir m (invariable)

1. souvenir

Further reading

• souvenir in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• universo

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Old French

Verb

souvenir

1. Alternative form of sovenir

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has a stressed present stem souvien distinct from the unstressed stem souven, as well as other irregularities. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of souvenir (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		souvenir			avoir souvenu
gerund		en souvenant			Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle
present participle		souvenant
past participle		souvenu
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	souvieng, souvien	souviens	souvient	souvenons	souvenez	souvienent
	imperfect	souvenoie, souveneie	souvenoies, souveneies	souvenoit, souveneit	souveniiens, souveniens	souveniiez, souveniez	souvenoient, souveneient
	preterite	souvin	souvenis	souvint	souvenimes	souvenistes	souvindrent, souvinrent
	future	souvendrai	souvendras	souvendra	souvendrons	souvendroiz, souvendreiz, souvendrez	souvendront
	conditional	souvendroie, souvendreie	souvendroies, souvendreies	souvendroit, souvendreit	souvendriiens, souvendriens	souvendriiez, souvendriez	souvendroient, souvendreient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior	Use the preterite tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	souviegne	souviegnes	souviegne	souviegniens, souviegnons	souviegniez	souviegnent
	imperfect	souvenisse	souvenisses	souvenist	souvenissons, souvenissiens	souvenissoiz, souvenissez, souvenissiez	souvenissent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	souvien	—	souvenons	souvenez	—

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Spanish

Etymology

From French souvenir.

Noun

souvenir m (plural souvenirs)

1. souvenir

Further reading

• “souvenir” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.