flamber

French

Etymology

From flambe +‎ -er, replacing Old French flammer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɑ̃.be/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Agen)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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Verb

flamber

1. (transitive) to flame, flambé
2. (transitive, figuratively) to squander money, especially on gambling
3. (transitive, figuratively) (of costs, rates, etc) to rise sharply; to surge; to skyrocket
   • 2025 August 17, Paul Wiseman, “Les prix à la production flambent en raison des droits de douane”, in La Presse‎:

     Les prix à la production flambent en raison des droits de douane

     Producer prices surge due to tariffs

4. (intransitive) to burn, blaze
5. to buckle

Conjugation

Conjugation of flamber (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	flamber
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	flambant /flɑ̃.bɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		flambé /flɑ̃.be/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	flambe /flɑ̃b/	flambes /flɑ̃b/	flambe /flɑ̃b/	flambons /flɑ̃.bɔ̃/	flambez /flɑ̃.be/	flambent /flɑ̃b/
	imperfect	flambais /flɑ̃.bɛ/	flambais /flɑ̃.bɛ/	flambait /flɑ̃.bɛ/	flambions /flɑ̃.bjɔ̃/	flambiez /flɑ̃.bje/	flambaient /flɑ̃.bɛ/
	past historic2	flambai /flɑ̃.be/	flambas /flɑ̃.ba/	flamba /flɑ̃.ba/	flambâmes /flɑ̃.bam/	flambâtes /flɑ̃.bat/	flambèrent /flɑ̃.bɛʁ/
	future	flamberai /flɑ̃.bʁe/	flamberas /flɑ̃.bʁa/	flambera /flɑ̃.bʁa/	flamberons /flɑ̃.bʁɔ̃/	flamberez /flɑ̃.bʁe/	flamberont /flɑ̃.bʁɔ̃/
	conditional	flamberais /flɑ̃.bʁɛ/	flamberais /flɑ̃.bʁɛ/	flamberait /flɑ̃.bʁɛ/	flamberions /flɑ̃.bə.ʁjɔ̃/	flamberiez /flɑ̃.bə.ʁje/	flamberaient /flɑ̃.bʁɛ/
(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	flambe /flɑ̃b/	flambes /flɑ̃b/	flambe /flɑ̃b/	flambions /flɑ̃.bjɔ̃/	flambiez /flɑ̃.bje/	flambent /flɑ̃b/
	imperfect2	flambasse /flɑ̃.bas/	flambasses /flɑ̃.bas/	flambât /flɑ̃.ba/	flambassions /flɑ̃.ba.sjɔ̃/	flambassiez /flɑ̃.ba.sje/	flambassent /flɑ̃.bas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	flambe /flɑ̃b/	—	flambons /flɑ̃.bɔ̃/	flambez /flɑ̃.be/	—
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

• tarte flambée

Descendants

• ⇒ Czech: flambovat
• ⇒ Dutch: flamberen

Further reading

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