activer

French

Etymology

From actif, both from Latin activus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.ti.ve/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

activer

1. (transitive) to activate (to encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate)
2. (transitive) to activate (to put a device, mechanism or system into action or motion; to enable)
3. (transitive, physics) to activate (to render radioactive)
4. (transitive) to speed up
5. (transitive) to stoke (e.g. a fire)

Conjugation

Conjugation of activer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	activer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	activant /ak.ti.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		activé /ak.ti.ve/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	active /ak.tiv/	actives /ak.tiv/	active /ak.tiv/	activons /ak.ti.vɔ̃/	activez /ak.ti.ve/	activent /ak.tiv/
	imperfect	activais /ak.ti.vɛ/	activais /ak.ti.vɛ/	activait /ak.ti.vɛ/	activions /ak.ti.vjɔ̃/	activiez /ak.ti.vje/	activaient /ak.ti.vɛ/
	past historic2	activai /ak.ti.ve/	activas /ak.ti.va/	activa /ak.ti.va/	activâmes /ak.ti.vam/	activâtes /ak.ti.vat/	activèrent /ak.ti.vɛʁ/
	future	activerai /ak.ti.vʁe/	activeras /ak.ti.vʁa/	activera /ak.ti.vʁa/	activerons /ak.ti.vʁɔ̃/	activerez /ak.ti.vʁe/	activeront /ak.ti.vʁɔ̃/
	conditional	activerais /ak.ti.vʁɛ/	activerais /ak.ti.vʁɛ/	activerait /ak.ti.vʁɛ/	activerions /ak.ti.və.ʁjɔ̃/	activeriez /ak.ti.və.ʁje/	activeraient /ak.ti.vʁɛ/
(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	active /ak.tiv/	actives /ak.tiv/	active /ak.tiv/	activions /ak.ti.vjɔ̃/	activiez /ak.ti.vje/	activent /ak.tiv/
	imperfect2	activasse /ak.ti.vas/	activasses /ak.ti.vas/	activât /ak.ti.va/	activassions /ak.ti.va.sjɔ̃/	activassiez /ak.ti.va.sje/	activassent /ak.ti.vas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	active /ak.tiv/	—	activons /ak.ti.vɔ̃/	activez /ak.ti.ve/	—
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

• actif
• activité
• réactiver

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• crevait

German

Adjective

activer

1. comparative degree of activ

Adjective

activer

1. inflection of activ:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural