agenouiller

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French agenoillier, from genoil (“knee”). Compare Catalan agenollar, Portuguese ajoelhar, Italian inginocchiare, Romanian îngenunchea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʒ.nu.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

agenouiller

1. (reflexive) to kneel, to kneel down

   En rentrant dans l’église, on me pria de m’agenouiller.

   When I went into the church, I was asked to kneel.

Conjugation

Conjugation of agenouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	agenouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	agenouillant /aʒ.nu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		agenouillé /aʒ.nu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	agenouille /aʒ.nuj/	agenouilles /aʒ.nuj/	agenouille /aʒ.nuj/	agenouillons /aʒ.nu.jɔ̃/	agenouillez /aʒ.nu.je/	agenouillent /aʒ.nuj/
	imperfect	agenouillais /aʒ.nu.jɛ/	agenouillais /aʒ.nu.jɛ/	agenouillait /aʒ.nu.jɛ/	agenouillions /aʒ.nuj.jɔ̃/	agenouilliez /aʒ.nuj.je/	agenouillaient /aʒ.nu.jɛ/
	past historic2	agenouillai /aʒ.nu.je/	agenouillas /aʒ.nu.ja/	agenouilla /aʒ.nu.ja/	agenouillâmes /aʒ.nu.jam/	agenouillâtes /aʒ.nu.jat/	agenouillèrent /aʒ.nu.jɛʁ/
	future	agenouillerai /aʒ.nuj.ʁe/	agenouilleras /aʒ.nuj.ʁa/	agenouillera /aʒ.nuj.ʁa/	agenouillerons /aʒ.nuj.ʁɔ̃/	agenouillerez /aʒ.nuj.ʁe/	agenouilleront /aʒ.nuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	agenouillerais /aʒ.nuj.ʁɛ/	agenouillerais /aʒ.nuj.ʁɛ/	agenouillerait /aʒ.nuj.ʁɛ/	agenouillerions /aʒ.nu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	agenouilleriez /aʒ.nu.jə.ʁje/	agenouilleraient /aʒ.nuj.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	agenouille /aʒ.nuj/	agenouilles /aʒ.nuj/	agenouille /aʒ.nuj/	agenouillions /aʒ.nuj.jɔ̃/	agenouilliez /aʒ.nuj.je/	agenouillent /aʒ.nuj/
	imperfect2	agenouillasse /aʒ.nu.jas/	agenouillasses /aʒ.nu.jas/	agenouillât /aʒ.nu.ja/	agenouillassions /aʒ.nu.ja.sjɔ̃/	agenouillassiez /aʒ.nu.ja.sje/	agenouillassent /aʒ.nu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	agenouille /aʒ.nuj/	—	agenouillons /aʒ.nu.jɔ̃/	agenouillez /aʒ.nu.je/	—
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

• agenouillable
• agenouilliste

Further reading

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