effrayer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French effreer, from Old French esfreer, esfreder (whence also English affray), from a Vulgar Latin *exfridāre, itself of Germanic origin (with the prefix ex- added), from a Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.fʁɛ.je/ ~ /e.fʁe.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

effrayer

1. (transitive) to frighten, to scare, to affray

   Synonyms: épouvanter, faire peur, horrifier, terrifier, terroriser

   • 2018, Zaz, Je parle:

     C'est le silence qui m'effraie.

     It's silence that frightens me.

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of effrayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	effrayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	effrayant /e.fʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /e.fʁe.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		effrayé /e.fʁɛ.je/ or /e.fʁe.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	effraye or effraie /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effrayes or effraies /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effraye or effraie /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effrayons /e.fʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.jɔ̃/	effrayez /e.fʁɛ.je/ or /e.fʁe.je/	effrayent or effraient /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/
	imperfect	effrayais /e.fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /e.fʁe.jɛ/	effrayais /e.fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /e.fʁe.jɛ/	effrayait /e.fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /e.fʁe.jɛ/	effrayions /e.fʁɛj.jɔ̃/	effrayiez /e.fʁɛj.je/	effrayaient /e.fʁɛ.jɛ/ or /e.fʁe.jɛ/
	past historic2	effrayai /e.fʁɛ.je/ or /e.fʁe.je/	effrayas /e.fʁɛ.ja/ or /e.fʁe.ja/	effraya /e.fʁɛ.ja/ or /e.fʁe.ja/	effrayâmes /e.fʁɛ.jam/ or /e.fʁe.jam/	effrayâtes /e.fʁɛ.jat/ or /e.fʁe.jat/	effrayèrent /e.fʁɛ.jɛʁ/ or /e.fʁe.jɛʁ/
	future	effrayerai or effraierai /e.fʁɛj.ʁe/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁe/ or /e.fʁe.ʁe/	effrayeras or effraieras /e.fʁɛj.ʁa/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁa/ or /e.fʁe.ʁa/	effrayera or effraiera /e.fʁɛj.ʁa/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁa/ or /e.fʁe.ʁa/	effrayerons or effraierons /e.fʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.ʁɔ̃/	effrayerez or effraierez /e.fʁɛj.ʁe/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁe/ or /e.fʁe.ʁe/	effrayeront or effraieront /e.fʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	effrayerais or effraierais /e.fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁe.ʁɛ/	effrayerais or effraierais /e.fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁe.ʁɛ/	effrayerait or effraierait /e.fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁe.ʁɛ/	effrayerions or effraierions /e.fʁɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	effrayeriez or effraieriez /e.fʁɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /e.fʁe.jə.ʁje/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁje/ or /e.fʁe.ʁje/	effrayeraient or effraieraient /e.fʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /e.fʁe.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	effraye or effraie /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effrayes or effraies /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effraye or effraie /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	effrayions /e.fʁɛj.jɔ̃/	effrayiez /e.fʁɛj.je/	effrayent or effraient /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/
	imperfect2	effrayasse /e.fʁɛ.jas/ or /e.fʁe.jas/	effrayasses /e.fʁɛ.jas/ or /e.fʁe.jas/	effrayât /e.fʁɛ.ja/ or /e.fʁe.ja/	effrayassions /e.fʁɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.ja.sjɔ̃/	effrayassiez /e.fʁɛ.ja.sje/ or /e.fʁe.ja.sje/	effrayassent /e.fʁɛ.jas/ or /e.fʁe.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	effraye or effraie /e.fʁɛj/ or /e.fʁɛ/	—	effrayons /e.fʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /e.fʁe.jɔ̃/	effrayez /e.fʁɛ.je/ or /e.fʁe.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).

Related terms

• effraie
• effroi
• effroyable

Further reading

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