hennir

French

Etymology

From Latin hinnire.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɛ.niʁ/ ~ /e.niʁ/, (obsolete) /a.niʁ/

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Verb

hennir

1. (intransitive) to neigh or whinny
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […] ‎, Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:

     Les poulains hennissaient quand on passait, et galopaient, galopaient…

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of hennir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	hennir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	hennissant /e.ni.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		henni /e.ni/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	hennis /e.ni/	hennis /e.ni/	hennit /e.ni/	hennissons /e.ni.sɔ̃/	hennissez /e.ni.se/	hennissent /e.nis/
	imperfect	hennissais /e.ni.sɛ/	hennissais /e.ni.sɛ/	hennissait /e.ni.sɛ/	hennissions /e.ni.sjɔ̃/	hennissiez /e.ni.sje/	hennissaient /e.ni.sɛ/
	past historic2	hennis /e.ni/	hennis /e.ni/	hennit /e.ni/	hennîmes /e.nim/	hennîtes /e.nit/	hennirent /e.niʁ/
	future	hennirai /e.ni.ʁe/	henniras /e.ni.ʁa/	hennira /e.ni.ʁa/	hennirons /e.ni.ʁɔ̃/	hennirez /e.ni.ʁe/	henniront /e.ni.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	hennirais /e.ni.ʁɛ/	hennirais /e.ni.ʁɛ/	hennirait /e.ni.ʁɛ/	hennirions /e.ni.ʁjɔ̃/	henniriez /e.ni.ʁje/	henniraient /e.ni.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	hennisse /e.nis/	hennisses /e.nis/	hennisse /e.nis/	hennissions /e.ni.sjɔ̃/	hennissiez /e.ni.sje/	hennissent /e.nis/
	imperfect2	hennisse /e.nis/	hennisses /e.nis/	hennît /e.ni/	hennissions /e.ni.sjɔ̃/	hennissiez /e.ni.sje/	hennissent /e.nis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	hennis /e.ni/	—	hennissons /e.ni.sɔ̃/	hennissez /e.ni.se/	—
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

• hennissement

Further reading

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