mettre
French
Etymology
From Middle French mettre, from Old French metre, from Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō, probably from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-, *mith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).
Pronunciation
Verb
mettre
- (transitive) to put; to place
- 1993, Aline Tauzin, Contes arabes de Mauritanie, →ISBN, page 133:
- il a pris un chiffon grisâtre et l'a mis sur la plaie
- He took a grayish cloth and placed it over the wound.
-
- (transitive, of clothing) to put on
- 2005, Marc Le Goupils, Revue de Paris, page 350:
- Elle n'avait pas mis son écharpe sur ses cheveux blonds
- She hadn't put her scarf over her blond hair.
-
- (transitive) to set (to lay a table)
- 1846, Jean Mallat de Bassilan, Les Philippines: histoire, géographie, moeurs, agriculture, industrie et commerce des colonies espagnoles dans l'Océanie, page 196:
- Il est déjà temps de manger / Mettez la table et la nappe
- It's already time to eat / Lay the table, put the cloth on.
-
- (takes a reflexive pronoun) to start (+ à) (something / doing something), to get around to doing something
- 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné, XXXIII:
- J'ouvris au hasard, je me rapprochai d'elle, elle appuya son épaule à mon épaule, et nous nous mîmes à lire chacun de notre côté, tout bas, la même page.
- I opened at random, I got close to her, she pressed her shoulder against my shoulder, and we each of us began on our own silently to read the same page.
- J'ouvris au hasard, je me rapprochai d'elle, elle appuya son épaule à mon épaule, et nous nous mîmes à lire chacun de notre côté, tout bas, la même page.
- 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné, XXXIII:
Conjugation
This verb is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is mis, not *mettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with mi-, not *metti-.
Conjugation of mettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| present participle | mettant /mɛ.tɑ̃/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past participle | mis /mi/ | ||||||
| infinitive | |||||||
| simple | mettre | ||||||
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| gerund1 | |||||||
| simple | mettant /mɛ.tɑ̃/ | ||||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | mets /mɛ/ |
mets /mɛ/ |
met /mɛ/ |
mettons /mɛ.tɔ̃/ |
mettez /mɛ.te/ |
mettent /mɛt/ |
| imperfect | mettais /mɛ.tɛ/ |
mettais /mɛ.tɛ/ |
mettait /mɛ.tɛ/ |
mettions /mɛ.tjɔ̃/ |
mettiez /mɛ.tje/ |
mettaient /mɛ.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | mis /mi/ |
mis /mi/ |
mit /mi/ |
mîmes /mim/ |
mîtes /mit/ |
mirent /miʁ/ | |
| future | mettrai /mɛ.tʁe/ |
mettras /mɛ.tʁa/ |
mettra /mɛ.tʁa/ |
mettrons /mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ |
mettrez /mɛ.tʁe/ |
mettront /mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | mettrais /mɛ.tʁɛ/ |
mettrais /mɛ.tʁɛ/ |
mettrait /mɛ.tʁɛ/ |
mettrions /mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ |
mettriez /mɛ.tʁi.je/ |
mettraient /mɛ.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 | mette /mɛt/ |
mettes /mɛt/ |
mette /mɛt/ |
mettions /mɛ.tjɔ̃/ |
mettiez /mɛ.tje/ |
mettent /mɛt/ |
| imperfect2 | misse /mis/ |
misses /mis/ |
mît /mi/ |
missions /mi.sjɔ̃/ |
missiez /mi.sje/ |
missent /mis/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | mets /mɛ/ |
— | mettons /mɛ.tɔ̃/ |
mettez /mɛ.te/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 Only usable with 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). | |||||||
Related terms
Further reading
- “mettre” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French metre, from Latin mittō.
Conjugation
- Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.
Conjugation of mettre
| simple | compound | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | mettre | avoir mis | |||||
| gerund | en mettant | Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| present participle | mettant | ||||||
| past participle | mis | ||||||
| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | ie (may be i' before a vowel) | tu | il | nous | vous | ilz, elles | |
| simple tenses |
present | mets | mets | met | mettons | mettez | mettent |
| imperfect | mettois, mettoys | mettois, mettoys | mettoit, mettoyt | mettions | mettiez | mettoient, mettoyent | |
| past historic | mis | mis | mit | mismes | mistes | mirent | |
| future | mettroie, mettroye | mettras | mettra | mettrons | mettrez | mettront | |
| conditional | mettrois, mettroys | mettrois, mettroys | mettroit, mettroyt | mettrions | mettriez | mettroient, mettroyent | |
| 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 past historic 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 ie | que tu | qu'il | que nous | que vous | qu'ilz, qu'elles | |
| simple tenses |
present | mette | mettes | mette | mettions | mettiez | menttent |
| imperfect | misse | misses | mist | missions | missiez | missent | |
| 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 | – | nous | vous | – | |
| — | mets | — | mettons | mettez | — | ||
Norman
Etymology
From Old French metre, from Latin mittō, mittere.
Pronunciation
Audio (Jersey) (file)
Antonyms
- ôter (“to remove”)
Derived terms
- mettre à la cape (“to heave to”)
- mettre en prison (“to imprison”)
- mettre en rade (“to lay up”)
- m'tteux (“bidder”)
- s'mettre l'dé dans l'yi (“to put one's foot in it”)
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