expliquer

French

Etymology

From Middle French expliquer (14th c.), a borrowing from Latin explicāre. Doublet of éployer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛks.pli.ke/, /ɛk.spli.ke/, (informal) /ɛs.pli.ke/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Homophones: expliquai, expliqué, expliquée, expliquées, expliqués, expliquez

Verb

expliquer

1. to explain

Conjugation

Conjugation of expliquer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	expliquer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	expliquant /ɛk.spli.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		expliqué /ɛk.spli.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	explique /ɛk.splik/	expliques /ɛk.splik/	explique /ɛk.splik/	expliquons /ɛk.spli.kɔ̃/	expliquez /ɛk.spli.ke/	expliquent /ɛk.splik/
	imperfect	expliquais /ɛk.spli.kɛ/	expliquais /ɛk.spli.kɛ/	expliquait /ɛk.spli.kɛ/	expliquions /ɛk.spli.kjɔ̃/	expliquiez /ɛk.spli.kje/	expliquaient /ɛk.spli.kɛ/
	past historic2	expliquai /ɛk.spli.ke/	expliquas /ɛk.spli.ka/	expliqua /ɛk.spli.ka/	expliquâmes /ɛk.spli.kam/	expliquâtes /ɛk.spli.kat/	expliquèrent /ɛk.spli.kɛʁ/
	future	expliquerai /ɛk.spli.kʁe/	expliqueras /ɛk.spli.kʁa/	expliquera /ɛk.spli.kʁa/	expliquerons /ɛk.spli.kʁɔ̃/	expliquerez /ɛk.spli.kʁe/	expliqueront /ɛk.spli.kʁɔ̃/
	conditional	expliquerais /ɛk.spli.kʁɛ/	expliquerais /ɛk.spli.kʁɛ/	expliquerait /ɛk.spli.kʁɛ/	expliquerions /ɛk.spli.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	expliqueriez /ɛk.spli.kə.ʁje/	expliqueraient /ɛk.spli.kʁɛ/
(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	explique /ɛk.splik/	expliques /ɛk.splik/	explique /ɛk.splik/	expliquions /ɛk.spli.kjɔ̃/	expliquiez /ɛk.spli.kje/	expliquent /ɛk.splik/
	imperfect2	expliquasse /ɛk.spli.kas/	expliquasses /ɛk.spli.kas/	expliquât /ɛk.spli.ka/	expliquassions /ɛk.spli.ka.sjɔ̃/	expliquassiez /ɛk.spli.ka.sje/	expliquassent /ɛk.spli.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	explique /ɛk.splik/	—	expliquons /ɛk.spli.kɔ̃/	expliquez /ɛk.spli.ke/	—
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

• explicable
• explicateur
• explicatif
• explication
• inexplicable
• inexplicablement
• sus-expliqué

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: eksplike
• Louisiana Creole: expliqué

Further reading

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