Inherited from Middle French boire, from Old French boivre, beivre, from Latin bibere, from Proto-Italic *pibō, from Proto-Indo-European *píph₃eti.
The stressed past historic stems (1st singular, 3rd singular and 3rd plural) are from Vulgar Latin perfect stem *būb- (historic Old French bui), while the unstressed past historic (remaining past historic tenses), subjunctive imperfect, and past participle endings changed from -i- to -ū- (*bibūstus → Old French beüs, *bibūtum → Old French beü). The paradigms above later merged with each other, but bui is replaced by Middle French bus with an analogous -s.
The imperfect, 1st and 2nd plural present (including subjunctive), plural imperative and present participle stems are from Old French unstressed stem bev- which involves to beuv-, then buv-.boire
| infinitive | simple | boire | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | buvant /by.vɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | bu /by/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | bois /bwa/ |
bois /bwa/ |
boit /bwa/ |
buvons /by.vɔ̃/ |
buvez /by.ve/ |
boivent /bwav/ |
| imperfect | buvais /by.vɛ/ |
buvais /by.vɛ/ |
buvait /by.vɛ/ |
buvions /by.vjɔ̃/ |
buviez /by.vje/ |
buvaient /by.vɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | bus /by/ |
bus /by/ |
but /by/ |
bûmes /bym/ |
bûtes /byt/ |
burent /byʁ/ | |
| future | boirai /bwa.ʁe/ |
boiras /bwa.ʁa/ |
boira /bwa.ʁa/ |
boirons /bwa.ʁɔ̃/ |
boirez /bwa.ʁe/ |
boiront /bwa.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | boirais /bwa.ʁɛ/ |
boirais /bwa.ʁɛ/ |
boirait /bwa.ʁɛ/ |
boirions /bwa.ʁjɔ̃/ |
boiriez /bwa.ʁje/ |
boiraient /bwa.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 | boive /bwav/ |
boives /bwav/ |
boive /bwav/ |
buvions /by.vjɔ̃/ |
buviez /by.vje/ |
boivent /bwav/ |
| imperfect2 | busse /bys/ |
busses /bys/ |
bût /by/ |
bussions /by.sjɔ̃/ |
bussiez /by.sje/ |
bussent /bys/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | bois /bwa/ |
— | buvons /by.vɔ̃/ |
buvez /by.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:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
From Old French boivre, beivre, from Latin bibō, bibere.
boire
boire f (plural boiri)