accabler

French

Etymology

From a- + Middle French chabler (“hit (a tree to make the fruit fall)”), from Old French cadable (“catapult”), from Ancient Greek καταβολή (katabolḗ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ka.ble/, /a.kɑ.ble/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

accabler

1. to devastate, overwhelm
2. (of testimony, etc.) to condemn (someone)

Conjugation

Conjugation of accabler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	accabler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	accablant /a.ka.blɑ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		accablé /a.ka.ble/ or /a.kɑ.ble/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	accable /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accables /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accable /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accablons /a.ka.blɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blɔ̃/	accablez /a.ka.ble/ or /a.kɑ.ble/	accablent /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/
	imperfect	accablais /a.ka.blɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blɛ/	accablais /a.ka.blɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blɛ/	accablait /a.ka.blɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blɛ/	accablions /a.ka.bli.jɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.bli.jɔ̃/	accabliez /a.ka.bli.je/ or /a.kɑ.bli.je/	accablaient /a.ka.blɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blɛ/
	past historic2	accablai /a.ka.ble/ or /a.kɑ.ble/	accablas /a.ka.bla/ or /a.kɑ.bla/	accabla /a.ka.bla/ or /a.kɑ.bla/	accablâmes /a.ka.blam/ or /a.kɑ.blam/	accablâtes /a.ka.blat/ or /a.kɑ.blat/	accablèrent /a.ka.blɛʁ/ or /a.kɑ.blɛʁ/
	future	accablerai /a.ka.blə.ʁe/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁe/	accableras /a.ka.blə.ʁa/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁa/	accablera /a.ka.blə.ʁa/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁa/	accablerons /a.ka.blə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁɔ̃/	accablerez /a.ka.blə.ʁe/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁe/	accableront /a.ka.blə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	accablerais /a.ka.blə.ʁɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁɛ/	accablerais /a.ka.blə.ʁɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁɛ/	accablerait /a.ka.blə.ʁɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁɛ/	accablerions /a.ka.blə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁjɔ̃/	accableriez /a.ka.blə.ʁje/ or /a.kɑ.blə.ʁje/	accableraient /a.ka.blə.ʁɛ/ or /a.kɑ.blə.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	accable /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accables /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accable /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	accablions /a.ka.bli.jɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.bli.jɔ̃/	accabliez /a.ka.bli.je/ or /a.kɑ.bli.je/	accablent /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/
	imperfect2	accablasse /a.ka.blas/ or /a.kɑ.blas/	accablasses /a.ka.blas/ or /a.kɑ.blas/	accablât /a.ka.bla/ or /a.kɑ.bla/	accablassions /a.ka.bla.sjɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.bla.sjɔ̃/	accablassiez /a.ka.bla.sje/ or /a.kɑ.bla.sje/	accablassent /a.ka.blas/ or /a.kɑ.blas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	accable /a.kabl/ or /a.kɑbl/	—	accablons /a.ka.blɔ̃/ or /a.kɑ.blɔ̃/	accablez /a.ka.ble/ or /a.kɑ.ble/	—
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

• accablement

Further reading

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