mouvoir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French mouvoir, from Old French movoir, moveir, from Latin movēre, from Proto-Indo-European *mew- (“to move”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu.vwaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ

Verb

mouvoir

1. (transitive, formal) to move
2. (reflexive, se mouvoir, formal) to go around, to move about

Conjugation

Conjugation of mouvoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mouvoir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	mouvant /mu.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mû /my/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	meus /mø/	meus /mø/	meut /mø/	mouvons /mu.vɔ̃/	mouvez /mu.ve/	meuvent /mœv/
	imperfect	mouvais /mu.vɛ/	mouvais /mu.vɛ/	mouvait /mu.vɛ/	mouvions /mu.vjɔ̃/	mouviez /mu.vje/	mouvaient /mu.vɛ/
	past historic2	mus /my/	mus /my/	mut /my/	mûmes /mym/	mûtes /myt/	murent /myʁ/
	future	mouvrai /mu.vʁe/	mouvras /mu.vʁa/	mouvra /mu.vʁa/	mouvrons /mu.vʁɔ̃/	mouvrez /mu.vʁe/	mouvront /mu.vʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mouvrais /mu.vʁɛ/	mouvrais /mu.vʁɛ/	mouvrait /mu.vʁɛ/	mouvrions /mu.vʁi.jɔ̃/	mouvriez /mu.vʁi.je/	mouvraient /mu.vʁɛ/
(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	meuve /mœv/	meuves /mœv/	meuve /mœv/	mouvions /mu.vjɔ̃/	mouviez /mu.vje/	meuvent /mœv/
	imperfect2	musse /mys/	musses /mys/	mût /my/	mussions /my.sjɔ̃/	mussiez /my.sje/	mussent /mys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	meus /mø/	—	mouvons /mu.vɔ̃/	mouvez /mu.ve/	—
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

• mouvement
• émouvoir
• promouvoir
• mouvant
• mû

Further reading

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

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French movoir, moveir.

Verb

mouvoir

1. to move

Descendants

• French: mouvoir