surpasser

English

Etymology

From surpass +‎ -er.

Noun

surpasser (plural surpassers)

1. One who surpasses.

French

Etymology

From sur- +‎ passer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.pa.se/ ~ /syʁ.pɑ.se/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: surpassai, surpassé, surpassée, surpassées, surpassés, surpassez

Verb

surpasser

1. (transitive) to surpass, outdo

   Near-synonym: dépasser

Conjugation

Conjugation of surpasser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	surpasser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	surpassant /syʁ.pa.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		surpassé /syʁ.pa.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	surpasse /syʁ.pas/	surpasses /syʁ.pas/	surpasse /syʁ.pas/	surpassons /syʁ.pa.sɔ̃/	surpassez /syʁ.pa.se/	surpassent /syʁ.pas/
	imperfect	surpassais /syʁ.pa.sɛ/	surpassais /syʁ.pa.sɛ/	surpassait /syʁ.pa.sɛ/	surpassions /syʁ.pa.sjɔ̃/	surpassiez /syʁ.pa.sje/	surpassaient /syʁ.pa.sɛ/
	past historic2	surpassai /syʁ.pa.se/	surpassas /syʁ.pa.sa/	surpassa /syʁ.pa.sa/	surpassâmes /syʁ.pa.sam/	surpassâtes /syʁ.pa.sat/	surpassèrent /syʁ.pa.sɛʁ/
	future	surpasserai /syʁ.pa.sʁe/	surpasseras /syʁ.pa.sʁa/	surpassera /syʁ.pa.sʁa/	surpasserons /syʁ.pa.sʁɔ̃/	surpasserez /syʁ.pa.sʁe/	surpasseront /syʁ.pa.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	surpasserais /syʁ.pa.sʁɛ/	surpasserais /syʁ.pa.sʁɛ/	surpasserait /syʁ.pa.sʁɛ/	surpasserions /syʁ.pa.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	surpasseriez /syʁ.pa.sə.ʁje/	surpasseraient /syʁ.pa.sʁɛ/
(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	surpasse /syʁ.pas/	surpasses /syʁ.pas/	surpasse /syʁ.pas/	surpassions /syʁ.pa.sjɔ̃/	surpassiez /syʁ.pa.sje/	surpassent /syʁ.pas/
	imperfect2	surpassasse /syʁ.pa.sas/	surpassasses /syʁ.pa.sas/	surpassât /syʁ.pa.sa/	surpassassions /syʁ.pa.sa.sjɔ̃/	surpassassiez /syʁ.pa.sa.sje/	surpassassent /syʁ.pa.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	surpasse /syʁ.pas/	—	surpassons /syʁ.pa.sɔ̃/	surpassez /syʁ.pa.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

• surpassement
• insurpassable

Further reading

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