Inherited from Old French plovoir, from earlier pluveir, from Vulgar Latin *plovere (with a change in conjugation to *plovēre), from Classical Latin pluere.
pleuvoir (impersonal)
This is a defective verb, only conjugated in the third-person. The third-person plural forms are only used figuratively.
| infinitive | simple | pleuvoir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | pleuvant /plœ.vɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | plu /ply/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | — | — | pleut /plø/ |
— | — | pleuvent /plœv/ |
| imperfect | — | — | pleuvait /plœ.vɛ/ |
— | — | pleuvaient /plœ.vɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | — | — | plut /ply/ |
— | — | plurent /plyʁ/ | |
| future | — | — | pleuvra /plœ.vʁa/ |
— | — | pleuvront /plœ.vʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | — | — | pleuvrait /plœ.vʁɛ/ |
— | — | pleuvraient /plœ.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 | — | — | pleuve /plœv/ |
— | — | pleuvent /plœv/ |
| imperfect2 | — | — | plût /ply/ |
— | — | plussent /plys/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 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). | |||||||
Rarely, the inflections pleus/pleux, pleuvons, pleuvez, and pleuvras are found.