Borrowed from Latin refrēnāre. Replaced Old French refraindre.
refréner
This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written refréner-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written refrèner-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.
| infinitive | simple | refréner | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | refrénant /ʁə.fʁe.nɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | refréné /ʁə.fʁe.ne/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrènes /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrénons /ʁə.fʁe.nɔ̃/ |
refrénez /ʁə.fʁe.ne/ |
refrènent /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
| imperfect | refrénais /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/ |
refrénais /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/ |
refrénait /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/ |
refrénions /ʁə.fʁe.njɔ̃/ |
refréniez /ʁə.fʁe.nje/ |
refrénaient /ʁə.fʁe.nɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | refrénai /ʁə.fʁe.ne/ |
refrénas /ʁə.fʁe.na/ |
refréna /ʁə.fʁe.na/ |
refrénâmes /ʁə.fʁe.nam/ |
refrénâtes /ʁə.fʁe.nat/ |
refrénèrent /ʁə.fʁe.nɛʁ/ | |
| future | refrènerai or refrénerai /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁe/ |
refrèneras or refréneras /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁa/ |
refrènera or refrénera /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁa/ |
refrènerons or refrénerons /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɔ̃/ |
refrènerez or refrénerez /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁe/ |
refrèneront or refréneront /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | refrènerais or refrénerais /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/ |
refrènerais or refrénerais /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/ |
refrènerait or refrénerait /ʁə.fʁɛn.ʁɛ/ |
refrènerions or refrénerions /ʁə.fʁɛ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.fʁe.nə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
refrèneriez or refréneriez /ʁə.fʁɛ.nə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.fʁe.nə.ʁje/ |
refrèneraient or refréneraient /ʁə.fʁɛn.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 | refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrènes /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
refrénions /ʁə.fʁe.njɔ̃/ |
refréniez /ʁə.fʁe.nje/ |
refrènent /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
| imperfect2 | refrénasse /ʁə.fʁe.nas/ |
refrénasses /ʁə.fʁe.nas/ |
refrénât /ʁə.fʁe.na/ |
refrénassions /ʁə.fʁe.na.sjɔ̃/ |
refrénassiez /ʁə.fʁe.na.sje/ |
refrénassent /ʁə.fʁe.nas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | refrène /ʁə.fʁɛn/ |
— | refrénons /ʁə.fʁe.nɔ̃/ |
refrénez /ʁə.fʁe.ne/ |
— | |
| 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). | |||||||