exprimer

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin exprimere. Compare the inherited doublet épreindre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.spʁi.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

exprimer

1. (transitive) to express
2. (reflexive) to express oneself

   Je me suis mal exprimé. ― I misspoke.

   Il lui est parfois difficile de s’exprimer clairement à cause de sa forme particulière d’intelligence.

   It's sometimes difficult for him to express himself clearly because of his peculiar form of intelligence.

   Guardiola préfère les vestiaires et le terrain pour s’exprimer.

   Guardiola prefers to express himself in the dressing room and on the pitch.

Conjugation

Conjugation of exprimer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	exprimer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	exprimant /ɛk.spʁi.mɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		exprimé /ɛk.spʁi.me/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	exprime /ɛk.spʁim/	exprimes /ɛk.spʁim/	exprime /ɛk.spʁim/	exprimons /ɛk.spʁi.mɔ̃/	exprimez /ɛk.spʁi.me/	expriment /ɛk.spʁim/
	imperfect	exprimais /ɛk.spʁi.mɛ/	exprimais /ɛk.spʁi.mɛ/	exprimait /ɛk.spʁi.mɛ/	exprimions /ɛk.spʁi.mjɔ̃/	exprimiez /ɛk.spʁi.mje/	exprimaient /ɛk.spʁi.mɛ/
	past historic2	exprimai /ɛk.spʁi.me/	exprimas /ɛk.spʁi.ma/	exprima /ɛk.spʁi.ma/	exprimâmes /ɛk.spʁi.mam/	exprimâtes /ɛk.spʁi.mat/	exprimèrent /ɛk.spʁi.mɛʁ/
	future	exprimerai /ɛk.spʁim.ʁe/	exprimeras /ɛk.spʁim.ʁa/	exprimera /ɛk.spʁim.ʁa/	exprimerons /ɛk.spʁim.ʁɔ̃/	exprimerez /ɛk.spʁim.ʁe/	exprimeront /ɛk.spʁim.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	exprimerais /ɛk.spʁim.ʁɛ/	exprimerais /ɛk.spʁim.ʁɛ/	exprimerait /ɛk.spʁim.ʁɛ/	exprimerions /ɛk.spʁi.mə.ʁjɔ̃/	exprimeriez /ɛk.spʁi.mə.ʁje/	exprimeraient /ɛk.spʁim.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	exprime /ɛk.spʁim/	exprimes /ɛk.spʁim/	exprime /ɛk.spʁim/	exprimions /ɛk.spʁi.mjɔ̃/	exprimiez /ɛk.spʁi.mje/	expriment /ɛk.spʁim/
	imperfect2	exprimasse /ɛk.spʁi.mas/	exprimasses /ɛk.spʁi.mas/	exprimât /ɛk.spʁi.ma/	exprimassions /ɛk.spʁi.ma.sjɔ̃/	exprimassiez /ɛk.spʁi.ma.sje/	exprimassent /ɛk.spʁi.mas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	exprime /ɛk.spʁim/	—	exprimons /ɛk.spʁi.mɔ̃/	exprimez /ɛk.spʁi.me/	—
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

• expression

Further reading

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