souffrir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sofrir, from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, from Latin sufferre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.fʁiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

souffrir

1. (intransitive) to suffer
   • 2014, Indila, Égo

     On est loin, on est loin du Jardin d’Éden, entre joie et fatalité. Libérez, libérons-nous de nous-mêmes. Pourquoi souffrir lorsqu’on peut s’aimer ?

     We are far, we are far from the Garden of Eden, between joy and fate. Free us, let's be free from ourselves. Why suffer when we can love each other?

   souffrir d’une maladie héréditaire ― to suffer from a hereditary disease

2. (transitive) to endure

   Synonyms: supporter, tolérer

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like ouvrir and offrir. It is conjugated like a regular -er verb in the present and imperfect indicative, present subjunctive, imperative, and present participle; it is conjugated like a regular -ir verb in the infinitive, future indicative, conditional, past historic, and imperfect subjunctive; and its past participle souffert is irregular.

Conjugation of souffrir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	souffrir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	souffrant /su.fʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		souffert /su.fɛʁ/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	souffre /sufʁ/	souffres /sufʁ/	souffre /sufʁ/	souffrons /su.fʁɔ̃/	souffrez /su.fʁe/	souffrent /sufʁ/
	imperfect	souffrais /su.fʁɛ/	souffrais /su.fʁɛ/	souffrait /su.fʁɛ/	souffrions /su.fʁi.jɔ̃/	souffriez /su.fʁi.je/	souffraient /su.fʁɛ/
	past historic2	souffris /su.fʁi/	souffris /su.fʁi/	souffrit /su.fʁi/	souffrîmes /su.fʁim/	souffrîtes /su.fʁit/	souffrirent /su.fʁiʁ/
	future	souffrirai /su.fʁi.ʁe/	souffriras /su.fʁi.ʁa/	souffrira /su.fʁi.ʁa/	souffrirons /su.fʁi.ʁɔ̃/	souffrirez /su.fʁi.ʁe/	souffriront /su.fʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	souffrirais /su.fʁi.ʁɛ/	souffrirais /su.fʁi.ʁɛ/	souffrirait /su.fʁi.ʁɛ/	souffririons /su.fʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	souffririez /su.fʁi.ʁje/	souffriraient /su.fʁi.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	souffre /sufʁ/	souffres /sufʁ/	souffre /sufʁ/	souffrions /su.fʁi.jɔ̃/	souffriez /su.fʁi.je/	souffrent /sufʁ/
	imperfect2	souffrisse /su.fʁis/	souffrisses /su.fʁis/	souffrît /su.fʁi/	souffrissions /su.fʁi.sjɔ̃/	souffrissiez /su.fʁi.sje/	souffrissent /su.fʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	souffre /sufʁ/	—	souffrons /su.fʁɔ̃/	souffrez /su.fʁe/	—
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

• souffrance
• souffrir le martyre

Further reading

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