Inherited from Middle French travailler, from Old French travailler (“toil, suffer, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre (“torture”), derived from Late Latin tripālium (“torture instrument”), from Latin tripālis (“having three stakes”).
travailler
| infinitive | simple | travailler | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | travaillant /tʁa.va.jɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | travaillé /tʁa.va.je/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travailles /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaillons /tʁa.va.jɔ̃/ |
travaillez /tʁa.va.je/ |
travaillent /tʁa.vaj/ |
| imperfect | travaillais /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillais /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillait /tʁa.va.jɛ/ |
travaillions /tʁa.vaj.jɔ̃/ |
travailliez /tʁa.vaj.je/ |
travaillaient /tʁa.va.jɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | travaillai /tʁa.va.je/ |
travaillas /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travailla /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travaillâmes /tʁa.va.jam/ |
travaillâtes /tʁa.va.jat/ |
travaillèrent /tʁa.va.jɛʁ/ | |
| future | travaillerai /tʁa.vaj.ʁe/ |
travailleras /tʁa.vaj.ʁa/ |
travaillera /tʁa.vaj.ʁa/ |
travaillerons /tʁa.vaj.ʁɔ̃/ |
travaillerez /tʁa.vaj.ʁe/ |
travailleront /tʁa.vaj.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | travaillerais /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerais /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerait /tʁa.vaj.ʁɛ/ |
travaillerions /tʁa.va.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
travailleriez /tʁa.va.jə.ʁje/ |
travailleraient /tʁa.vaj.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 | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travailles /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
travaillions /tʁa.vaj.jɔ̃/ |
travailliez /tʁa.vaj.je/ |
travaillent /tʁa.vaj/ |
| imperfect2 | travaillasse /tʁa.va.jas/ |
travaillasses /tʁa.va.jas/ |
travaillât /tʁa.va.ja/ |
travaillassions /tʁa.va.ja.sjɔ̃/ |
travaillassiez /tʁa.va.ja.sje/ |
travaillassent /tʁa.va.jas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | travaille /tʁa.vaj/ |
— | travaillons /tʁa.va.jɔ̃/ |
travaillez /tʁa.va.je/ |
— | |
| 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 traveiller.
travailler
| infinitive | simple | travailler | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle1 or gerund2 | simple | travaillant | |||||
| compound | present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | travaillé | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | ie (i’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ilz, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | travaille | travailles | travaille | travaillons | travaillez | travaillent |
| imperfect | travaillois, travailloys | travaillois, travailloys | travailloit, travailloyt | travaillions, travaillyons | travailliez, travaillyez | travailloient, travailloyent | |
| past historic | travailla | travaillas | travailla | travaillasmes | travaillastes | travaillerent | |
| future | travaillerai, travailleray | travailleras | travaillera | travaillerons | travaillerez | travailleront | |
| conditional | travaillerois, travailleroys | travaillerois, travailleroys | travailleroit, travailleroyt | travaillerions, travailleryons | travailleriez, travailleryez | travailleroient, travailleroyent | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que ie (i’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ilz, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | travaille | travailles | travaille | travaillons | travaillez | travaillent |
| imperfect | travaillasse | travaillasses | travaillast | travaillassions | travaillassiez | travaillassent | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | travaille | — | travaillons | travaillez | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château , Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679. | |||||||
| 2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château , op. cit., p. 180). | |||||||
From Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre (“torment”), derived from Late Latin tripālium (“torture device”).
travailler
This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -ier, with a palatal stem. These verbs are conjugated mostly like verbs in -er, but there is an extra i before the e of some endings. The forms that would normally end in *-aill, *-aills, *-aillt are modified to ail, auz, aut. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.