griffer

French

Etymology

From Old French grifer, either deverbal from griffe, which see, or from Old High German grīfan, from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną. Doublet of gripper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁi.fe/

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Verb

griffer

1. to scratch

Conjugation

Conjugation of griffer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	griffer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	griffant /ɡʁi.fɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		griffé /ɡʁi.fe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	griffe /ɡʁif/	griffes /ɡʁif/	griffe /ɡʁif/	griffons /ɡʁi.fɔ̃/	griffez /ɡʁi.fe/	griffent /ɡʁif/
	imperfect	griffais /ɡʁi.fɛ/	griffais /ɡʁi.fɛ/	griffait /ɡʁi.fɛ/	griffions /ɡʁi.fjɔ̃/	griffiez /ɡʁi.fje/	griffaient /ɡʁi.fɛ/
	past historic2	griffai /ɡʁi.fe/	griffas /ɡʁi.fa/	griffa /ɡʁi.fa/	griffâmes /ɡʁi.fam/	griffâtes /ɡʁi.fat/	griffèrent /ɡʁi.fɛʁ/
	future	grifferai /ɡʁi.fʁe/	grifferas /ɡʁi.fʁa/	griffera /ɡʁi.fʁa/	grifferons /ɡʁi.fʁɔ̃/	grifferez /ɡʁi.fʁe/	grifferont /ɡʁi.fʁɔ̃/
	conditional	grifferais /ɡʁi.fʁɛ/	grifferais /ɡʁi.fʁɛ/	grifferait /ɡʁi.fʁɛ/	grifferions /ɡʁi.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	grifferiez /ɡʁi.fə.ʁje/	grifferaient /ɡʁi.fʁɛ/
(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	griffe /ɡʁif/	griffes /ɡʁif/	griffe /ɡʁif/	griffions /ɡʁi.fjɔ̃/	griffiez /ɡʁi.fje/	griffent /ɡʁif/
	imperfect2	griffasse /ɡʁi.fas/	griffasses /ɡʁi.fas/	griffât /ɡʁi.fa/	griffassions /ɡʁi.fa.sjɔ̃/	griffassiez /ɡʁi.fa.sje/	griffassent /ɡʁi.fas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	griffe /ɡʁif/	—	griffons /ɡʁi.fɔ̃/	griffez /ɡʁi.fe/	—
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

• griffe

Further reading

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