servir

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin servīre.

Verb

servir

1. to serve

Related terms

• siervu

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Old Catalan servir, from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)
• Rhymes: -i(ɾ)
• Homophone: serví

Verb

servir (first-person singular present serveixo, first-person singular preterite serví, past participle servit)

1. to serve
2. to be useful, to be good for
   • 2019 September 18, Lluís Foix, “Negativisme desacomplexat”, in La Vanguardia‎:

     La veracitat que s’atorga a les enquestes d’opinió pot persuadir molta gent que la política i els polítics ja no serveixen per canviar les coses.

     The veracity granted to opinion polls can persuade many people that politics and politicians are no good anymore for changing things.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• fer servir

Related terms

References

• “servir” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “servir”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “servir” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “servir” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French servir, from Old French servir, from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.viʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

servir

1. to serve (to help in a shop; to bring a meal to someone)

   Je suis allée en France avec ma mère l’année dernière et le serveur nous a servi des escargots!

   I went to France last year with my mother and the waiter served us escargots!

   On vous a servie, madame?

   Have you been helped, madam?

2. to be used for
3. (transitive with à) to be useful for someone, to be of use, come in handy
4. (sports) to serve (start a point with service)
5. (sports) to set up (pass to, in order to give a scoring chance)
6. (reflexive) to help oneself, to serve oneself
7. (reflexive, transitive with de) to use, make use of

Conjugation

This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The most significant difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) sers and (il) sert in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *servis and *servit (as in the past historic).

This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The most significant difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) sers and (il) sert in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *servis and *servit (as in the past historic).

This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The most significant difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) sers and (il) sert in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *servis and *servit (as in the past historic).

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → German: servieren
  • Norwegian Bokmål: servere
• Haitian Creole: sèvi

Further reading

• “servir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese servir, from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): ,

Verb

servir (first-person singular present sirvo, third-person singular present serve, first-person singular preterite servín, past participle servido)

1. (intransitive) to serve
2. (intransitive) to be useful or fitting

   Synonym: valer

3. (transitive) to serve

Conjugation

References

• “servir” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “servir” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “servir” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “servir” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “servir” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /serˈvir/

Verb

servir

1. to serve

Conjugation

Italian

Verb

servir (apocopated)

1. Apocopic form of servire

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French servir, from Latin servīre.

Verb

servir

1. to serve (act as a servant or a vassal)

Descendants

• → English: serve
• French: servir
  • German: servieren
    • Norwegian Bokmål: servere

Occitan

Etymology

From Old Occitan servir, from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səɾˈβi/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

servir

1. to serve
2. to be useful

Conjugation

    Conjugation of servir in Lengadocian (Central Occitan)

		simple			compound
infinitive		servir			aver servit
past participle		servit			—
gerund		servissent			avent servit
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		ieu	tu	el	nosautres	vosautres	eles
	present	servissi	servisses	servís	servissèm	servissètz	servisson
	imperfect	servissiái	servissiás	servissiá	servissiam	servissiatz	servissián
	preterite	serviguèri	serviguères	serviguèt	serviguèrem	serviguèretz	serviguèron
	future	servirai	serviràs	servirà	servirem	serviretz	serviràn
	conditional	serviriái	serviriás	serviriá	serviriam	serviriatz	servirián
	conditional 2nd form1	serviguèra	serviguèras	serviguèra	servigueram	servigueratz	serviguèran
compound tenses	present perfect	use the present tense of aver plus the past participle
	pluperfect	use the imperfect tense of aver plus the past participle
	past anterior	use the preterite tense of aver plus the past participle
	future perfect	use the future tense of aver plus the past participle
	conditional perfect	use the conditional tense of aver plus the past participle
subjunctive		que ieu	que tu	que el	que nosautres	que vosautres	que eles
	present	servisca	serviscas	servisca	serviscam	serviscatz	serviscan
	imperfect	serviguèsse	serviguèsses	serviguèsse	serviguèssem	serviguèssetz	serviguèsson
compound tenses	past	use the present subjunctive of aver plus the past participle
	pluperfect	use the imperfect subjunctive of aver plus the past participle
imperative		—	tu	—	nosautres	vosautres	—
			servís		serviscam	servissetz	1Now chiefly obsolete, still in use in some Limousin and Vivaro-Alpin dialects

Related terms

• servidor

Old French

Etymology

From Latin servīre.

Verb

servir

1. to serve (act as a servant or a vassal)

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

Related terms

Descendants

• Middle French: servir
  • → English: serve
  • French: servir
    • German: servieren
      • Norwegian Bokmål: servere
• Walloon: siervi

Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin servīre.

Verb

servir

1. to serve (act as a servant or a vassal)

Descendants

• Occitan: servir

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese servir, from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ser‧vir

Verb

servir (first-person singular present sirvo, third-person singular present serve, first-person singular preterite servi, past participle servido)

1. (transitive) to serve (to work as a servant for someone)
2. (religion, transitive) to serve (to worship a god)
3. (transitive) to serve (to give out or place down food or drink)
4. (intransitive, or transitive with em) to serve (to be part of an armed force)

   Servi dois anos na Legião Estrangeira. ― I served for two years in the Foreign Legion.

5. (intransitive) to suffice; to do (to be good enough for a task)

   Esse martelo é ruim mas serve. ― This hammer is bad but it will do.

6. (subordinating, transitive with para) to be for (to have as its purpose or utility)

   Martelos servem para as pessoas baterem pregos. ― Hammers are for people to hit nails with.

Conjugation

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:servir.

Related terms

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin servīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seɾˈbiɾ/
• Rhymes: -iɾ
• Syllabification: ser‧vir

Verb

servir (first-person singular present sirvo, first-person singular preterite serví, past participle servido)

1. (intransitive, transitive) to serve (to be a servant or worker; to render service)

   Es una empresa que sirve a los discapacitados.

   It's a business that serves the disabled.

2. (intransitive, transitive) to serve (to be a servant for; to work for)
3. (intransitive) to be of use, to be good for

   Hace diez años, la traducción automática no servía.

   Ten years ago, automated translation was no good.

   Este cuchillo sirve para cortar el pan.

   This knife is good for cutting bread.

4. (intransitive) to serve (to usefully take the place of something else)

   sirve como recordatorio ― serves as a reminder

5. (intransitive) to serve (to be in military service)
6. (intransitive, transitive) to serve (to set down (food or drink) on the table to be eaten)

   El camarero nos sirvió la comida de otra mesa.

   The waiter served us another table's food.

7. (intransitive, sports) to serve (to lead off with the first delivery over the net in tennis, volleyball, ping pong, badminton, etc.)

   Synonym: sacar

8. (reflexive, with de) to help oneself to (to take something freely)

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “servir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Venetian

Etymology

From Latin servīre. Compare Italian servire.

Verb

servir

1. (transitive, intransitive) to serve

Conjugation

• Venetian conjugation varies from one region to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.