affermir

French

Etymology

From a- +‎ ferme +‎ -ir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fɛʁ.miʁ/

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Verb

affermir

1. to firm up
2. to strengthen
3. to make firmer
4. (reflexive) to become firmer, sharper or stronger
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[1], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères; republished as Eleanor Marx, transl., Madame Bovary, 1886:

     Il se disait ces choses pour s'affermir davantage.

     He was saying these things to give himself firmness.

5. (reflexive) to firm up

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 affermir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	affermir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	affermissant /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		affermi /a.fɛʁ.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	affermis /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermis /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermit /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermissons /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɔ̃/	affermissez /a.fɛʁ.mi.se/	affermissent /a.fɛʁ.mis/
	imperfect	affermissais /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɛ/	affermissais /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɛ/	affermissait /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɛ/	affermissions /a.fɛʁ.mi.sjɔ̃/	affermissiez /a.fɛʁ.mi.sje/	affermissaient /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɛ/
	past historic2	affermis /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermis /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermit /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermîmes /a.fɛʁ.mim/	affermîtes /a.fɛʁ.mit/	affermirent /a.fɛʁ.miʁ/
	future	affermirai /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁe/	affermiras /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁa/	affermira /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁa/	affermirons /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁɔ̃/	affermirez /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁe/	affermiront /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	affermirais /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁɛ/	affermirais /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁɛ/	affermirait /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁɛ/	affermirions /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁjɔ̃/	affermiriez /a.fɛʁ.mi.ʁje/	affermiraient /a.fɛʁ.mi.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	affermisse /a.fɛʁ.mis/	affermisses /a.fɛʁ.mis/	affermisse /a.fɛʁ.mis/	affermissions /a.fɛʁ.mi.sjɔ̃/	affermissiez /a.fɛʁ.mi.sje/	affermissent /a.fɛʁ.mis/
	imperfect2	affermisse /a.fɛʁ.mis/	affermisses /a.fɛʁ.mis/	affermît /a.fɛʁ.mi/	affermissions /a.fɛʁ.mi.sjɔ̃/	affermissiez /a.fɛʁ.mi.sje/	affermissent /a.fɛʁ.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	affermis /a.fɛʁ.mi/	—	affermissons /a.fɛʁ.mi.sɔ̃/	affermissez /a.fɛʁ.mi.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

• affermissement

Further reading

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