incarner

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French incarner, borrowed (1372) from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin incarnāre, from Latin carō. Cf. also the Old French form encharner.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

incarner

1. (religion) to incarnate
2. to embody, to personify
3. (theater) to play (act as a certain character)
4. (reflexive) to ingrow (become ingrown) (of a toenail or fingernail)

Conjugation

Conjugation of incarner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	incarner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	incarnant /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		incarné /ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	incarne /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarnes /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarne /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarnons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɔ̃/	incarnez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne/	incarnent /ɛ̃.kaʁn/
	imperfect	incarnais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɛ/	incarnais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɛ/	incarnait /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɛ/	incarnions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.njɔ̃/	incarniez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nje/	incarnaient /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɛ/
	past historic2	incarnai /ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne/	incarnas /ɛ̃.kaʁ.na/	incarna /ɛ̃.kaʁ.na/	incarnâmes /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nam/	incarnâtes /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nat/	incarnèrent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɛʁ/
	future	incarnerai /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁe/	incarneras /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁa/	incarnera /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁa/	incarnerons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/	incarnerez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁe/	incarneront /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	incarnerais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	incarnerais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	incarnerait /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	incarnerions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	incarneriez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.ʁje/	incarneraient /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nə.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	incarne /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarnes /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarne /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	incarnions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.njɔ̃/	incarniez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nje/	incarnent /ɛ̃.kaʁn/
	imperfect2	incarnasse /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nas/	incarnasses /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nas/	incarnât /ɛ̃.kaʁ.na/	incarnassions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃/	incarnassiez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.na.sje/	incarnassent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	incarne /ɛ̃.kaʁn/	—	incarnons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.nɔ̃/	incarnez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne/	—
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

• chair f
• incarnation
• incarné

Descendants

• → Turkish: enkarne (via past participle)

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

incarner

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of incarnō