paître

See also: paitre

French

Alternative forms

• paitre (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

Inherited from Old French paistre, from Latin pāscere, from Proto-Italic *pāskō, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛtʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

paître (defective)

1. (intransitive) to graze

Conjugation

This verb is not conjugated in certain tenses.

Conjugation of paître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	paître
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	paissant /pɛ.sɑ̃/ or /pe.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pu /py/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pais /pɛ/2	pais /pɛ/	paît /pɛ/	paissons /pɛ.sɔ̃/ or /pe.sɔ̃/	paissez /pɛ.se/ or /pe.se/	paissent /pɛs/
	imperfect	paissais /pɛ.sɛ/ or /pe.sɛ/	paissais /pɛ.sɛ/ or /pe.sɛ/	paissait /pɛ.sɛ/ or /pe.sɛ/	paissions /pɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /pe.sjɔ̃/	paissiez /pɛ.sje/ or /pe.sje/	paissaient /pɛ.sɛ/ or /pe.sɛ/
	past historic4	pus /py/	pus /py/	put /py/	pûmes /pym/	pûtes /pyt/	purent /pyʁ/
	future	paîtrai /pɛ.tʁe/ or /pe.tʁe/	paîtras /pɛ.tʁa/ or /pe.tʁa/	paîtra /pɛ.tʁa/ or /pe.tʁa/	paîtrons /pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pe.tʁɔ̃/	paîtrez /pɛ.tʁe/ or /pe.tʁe/	paîtront /pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /pe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	paîtrais /pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pe.tʁɛ/	paîtrais /pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pe.tʁɛ/	paîtrait /pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pe.tʁɛ/	paîtrions /pɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /pe.tʁi.jɔ̃/	paîtriez /pɛ.tʁi.je/ or /pe.tʁi.je/	paîtraient /pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /pe.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior4	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	paisse /pɛs/3	paisses /pɛs/	paisse /pɛs/	paissions /pɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /pe.sjɔ̃/	paissiez /pɛ.sje/ or /pe.sje/	paissent /pɛs/
	imperfect4	pusse /pys/	pusses /pys/	pût /py/	pussions /py.sjɔ̃/	pussiez /py.sje/	pussent /pys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect4	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pais /pɛ/	—	paissons /pɛ.sɔ̃/ or /pe.sɔ̃/	paissez /pɛ.se/ or /pe.se/	—
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 puis when inverted.
3 puissé when inverted.
4 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

• envoyer paître

Related terms

• appâter
• empêtrer
• pâtre
• pâture
• paisson
• pasteur
• pu
• repaître

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• parité, partie, patrie, pirate, piraté, prêtai, repait, repaît

Norman

Etymology

From Old French paistre (“to graze”), from Latin pāscō, pāscere (“feed, nourish, maintain, support; pasture, drive to pasture, attend; feed, supply, cultivate, let grow; graze, browse”).

Verb

paître

1. (Jersey) to graze

Derived terms

• env'yer tchitch'un à paître (“to send someone packing”)
• laîssi paître ès coucous (“to leave fallow”)