blêmir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French blêmir, from Old French blemir, blesmir, from Frankish *blesmijan, *blasmijan (“to grow pale; make pale”), from Proto-Germanic *blasaz (“shining, white, fair, pale”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, be white”). Cognate with Old High German blas (“white; having a blaze”) and English blaze.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɛ.miʁ/ ~ /ble.miʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

blêmir

1. to whiten; to become pale; to blanch

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of blêmir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	blêmir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	blêmissant /blɛ.mi.sɑ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		blêmi /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmit /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmissons /blɛ.mi.sɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɔ̃/	blêmissez /blɛ.mi.se/ or /ble.mi.se/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
	imperfect	blêmissais /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissais /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissait /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissaient /blɛ.mi.sɛ/ or /ble.mi.sɛ/
	past historic2	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmit /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmîmes /blɛ.mim/ or /ble.mim/	blêmîtes /blɛ.mit/ or /ble.mit/	blêmirent /blɛ.miʁ/ or /ble.miʁ/
	future	blêmirai /blɛ.mi.ʁe/ or /ble.mi.ʁe/	blêmiras /blɛ.mi.ʁa/ or /ble.mi.ʁa/	blêmira /blɛ.mi.ʁa/ or /ble.mi.ʁa/	blêmirons /blɛ.mi.ʁɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁɔ̃/	blêmirez /blɛ.mi.ʁe/ or /ble.mi.ʁe/	blêmiront /blɛ.mi.ʁɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	blêmirais /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirais /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirait /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.ʁɛ/	blêmirions /blɛ.mi.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.ʁjɔ̃/	blêmiriez /blɛ.mi.ʁje/ or /ble.mi.ʁje/	blêmiraient /blɛ.mi.ʁɛ/ or /ble.mi.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	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisses /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
	imperfect2	blêmisse /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmisses /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/	blêmît /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	blêmissions /blɛ.mi.sjɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sjɔ̃/	blêmissiez /blɛ.mi.sje/ or /ble.mi.sje/	blêmissent /blɛ.mis/ or /ble.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	blêmis /blɛ.mi/ or /ble.mi/	—	blêmissons /blɛ.mi.sɔ̃/ or /ble.mi.sɔ̃/	blêmissez /blɛ.mi.se/ or /ble.mi.se/	—
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

• blême
• blémissement / blêmissement

Further reading

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