achever

From Middle French achever, from Old French achever, from Vulgar Latin *accapāre, from Latin ad + caput (“head”) + -āre. Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar.

• IPA^(key): /aʃ.ve/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: achevai, achevé, achevée, achevées, achevés, achevez

achever

1. (transitive) to finish, to complete
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche‎^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter II:

     Ayant donc achevé ses préparatifs, il ne voulut pas attendre davantage pour mettre à exécution son projet.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

     Having thus completed his preparations, he did not want to wait any longer to put his project into execution.

2. (transitive) to finish off (someone who is already incapacitated)
3. (reflexive, s'achever) to finish

This verb is conjugated mostly like the regular -er verbs (parler and chanter and so on), but the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-. For example, in the third-person singular present indicative, we have il achève rather than *il acheve. Other verbs conjugated this way include lever and mener. Related but distinct conjugations include those of appeler and préférer.

• achevé
• inachevé

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

• vachère

From Old French à, from Latin ad; + chief, from caput (“head”). Also possibly from a Vulgar Latin root *accapāre.

achever

1. to finish; to complete

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• finir

• French: achever