insinuer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnsinuāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.si.nɥe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

insinuer

1. insinuate (make way for by subtle means)
   • 1956, Sylvio Sereno, Latitude 9°-S, Éditions du Faucon Noir, page 41:

     Lorsque je fis fonctionner de nouveau mon cerveau, elle s’était glissée tout contre moi, insinuant une de ses jambes sous les miennes, et je n’eus qu’un léger mouvement sur le flanc à faire pour m’abîmer à la fournaise délicieusement étroite de son intimité.

     When I got my brain to work again, she had glided tightly against me, insinuating one of her legs under mine, and I only had to make a light movement on the side to be absorbed into the deliciously narrow furnace of her intimacy.

2. insinuate; hint

   Synonym: laisser entendre

Conjugation

Conjugation of insinuer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	insinuer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	insinuant /ɛ̃.si.nɥɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		insinué /ɛ̃.si.nɥe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	insinue /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinues /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinue /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinuons /ɛ̃.si.nɥɔ̃/	insinuez /ɛ̃.si.nɥe/	insinuent /ɛ̃.si.ny/
	imperfect	insinuais /ɛ̃.si.nɥɛ/	insinuais /ɛ̃.si.nɥɛ/	insinuait /ɛ̃.si.nɥɛ/	insinuions /ɛ̃.si.ny.jɔ̃/	insinuiez /ɛ̃.si.ny.je/	insinuaient /ɛ̃.si.nɥɛ/
	past historic2	insinuai /ɛ̃.si.nɥe/	insinuas /ɛ̃.si.nɥa/	insinua /ɛ̃.si.nɥa/	insinuâmes /ɛ̃.si.nɥam/	insinuâtes /ɛ̃.si.nɥat/	insinuèrent /ɛ̃.si.nɥɛʁ/
	future	insinuerai /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁe/	insinueras /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁa/	insinuera /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁa/	insinuerons /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁɔ̃/	insinuerez /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁe/	insinueront /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	insinuerais /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁɛ/	insinuerais /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁɛ/	insinuerait /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁɛ/	insinuerions /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁjɔ̃/	insinueriez /ɛ̃.si.ny.ʁje/	insinueraient /ɛ̃.si.ny.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	insinue /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinues /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinue /ɛ̃.si.ny/	insinuions /ɛ̃.si.ny.jɔ̃/	insinuiez /ɛ̃.si.ny.je/	insinuent /ɛ̃.si.ny/
	imperfect2	insinuasse /ɛ̃.si.nɥas/	insinuasses /ɛ̃.si.nɥas/	insinuât /ɛ̃.si.nɥa/	insinuassions /ɛ̃.si.nɥa.sjɔ̃/	insinuassiez /ɛ̃.si.nɥa.sje/	insinuassent /ɛ̃.si.nɥas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	insinue /ɛ̃.si.ny/	—	insinuons /ɛ̃.si.nɥɔ̃/	insinuez /ɛ̃.si.nɥe/	—
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

• insinuation

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

īnsinuer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of īnsinuō

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

insinuer

1. imperative of insinuere