interpeller

French

Alternative forms

• interpeler (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interpellāre, from interpellō (“to interrupt, to hinder”). Compare Italian interpellare, Spanish and Portuguese interpelar, English interpellate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/, (formal) /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.le/, (formal) /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.le/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

interpeller (transitive)

1. to call out to
   • 1930, Victor Méric, Les Compagnons de l’Escopette, Paris: Éditions de l’Épi, page 188:

     Elle interpelle une femme maigriote et chahuteuse et lui crie avec un accent inimitable : […]

     She called out to a slimmish, raucous woman and cried out to her in an unimitable accent […]

2. to question, to interrogate; to address (of police etc.)
   • 1863, Jules Verne, Cinq semaines en ballon, Paris: J. Hetzel et Compagnie:

     L’un des membres de la Société interpella le président sur la question de savoir si le docteur Fergusson ne serait pas officiellement présenté.

     One of the members of the Society questioned the president on the question of whether Doctor Fergusson would be officially presented.

3. (by extension) to apprehend, to arrest

   Synonym: appréhender

   • 2020 November 5, “Quatre radars automatiques incendiés dans le sud-est”, in Europe 1:

     Aucun suspect n’a été interpellé.

     No suspects have been caught.

4. (figurative) to raise questions for
   • 2006, André Corten, Les frontières du politique en Amérique latine, Éditions Karthala, page 58:

     Si la nature des rapports entre le politique et les idées de la religion et du sacré nous interpelle, en tant que politologues, il nous semble essentiel de réfléchir sur leurs théorisations respectives […]

     If the nature of the relations between politics and ideas of religion and the sacred raises questions to us as political scientists, it seems essential for us to reflect on their respective theorization […]

5. (politics) to interpellate (question formally concerning official or governmental policy)

Conjugation

Conjugation of interpeller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	interpeller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	interpellant /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɑ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɑ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		interpellé /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	interpelle /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpelles /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpelle /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpellons /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɔ̃/	interpellez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.le/	interpellent /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/
	imperfect	interpellais /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɛ/	interpellais /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɛ/	interpellait /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɛ/	interpellions /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.ljɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.ljɔ̃/	interpelliez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lje/	interpellaient /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɛ/
	past historic2	interpellai /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.le/	interpellas /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.la/	interpella /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.la/	interpellâmes /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lam/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lam/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lam/	interpellâtes /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lat/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lat/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lat/	interpellèrent /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɛʁ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɛʁ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɛʁ/
	future	interpellerai /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁe/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁe/	interpelleras /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁa/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁa/	interpellera /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁa/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁa/	interpellerons /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁɔ̃/	interpellerez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁe/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁe/	interpelleront /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	interpellerais /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁɛ/	interpellerais /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁɛ/	interpellerait /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.ʁɛ/	interpellerions /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	interpelleriez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lə.ʁje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lə.ʁje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lə.ʁje/	interpelleraient /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.l(ə).ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl.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	interpelle /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpelles /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpelle /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	interpellions /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.ljɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.ljɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.ljɔ̃/	interpelliez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lje/	interpellent /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/
	imperfect2	interpellasse /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.las/	interpellasses /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.las/	interpellât /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.la/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.la/	interpellassions /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.la.sjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.la.sjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.la.sjɔ̃/	interpellassiez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.la.sje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.la.sje/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.la.sje/	interpellassent /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.las/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	interpelle /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛl/	—	interpellons /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.lɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.lɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.lɔ̃/	interpellez /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pɛ.le/ or /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pe.le/	—
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

• interpellation

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

interpeller

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of interpellō