éclaircir

French

Etymology

From Late Latin *exclaricire, from Latin claricare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.klɛʁ.siʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

éclaircir

1. (transitive) to brighten (up)
2. to thin (down)
3. to clear up, solve, clarify (mystery, problem etc.)

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of éclaircir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	éclaircir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	éclaircissant /e.klɛʁ.si.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		éclairci /e.klɛʁ.si/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	éclaircis /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircis /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircit /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircissons /e.klɛʁ.si.sɔ̃/	éclaircissez /e.klɛʁ.si.se/	éclaircissent /e.klɛʁ.sis/
	imperfect	éclaircissais /e.klɛʁ.si.sɛ/	éclaircissais /e.klɛʁ.si.sɛ/	éclaircissait /e.klɛʁ.si.sɛ/	éclaircissions /e.klɛʁ.si.sjɔ̃/	éclaircissiez /e.klɛʁ.si.sje/	éclaircissaient /e.klɛʁ.si.sɛ/
	past historic2	éclaircis /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircis /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircit /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircîmes /e.klɛʁ.sim/	éclaircîtes /e.klɛʁ.sit/	éclaircirent /e.klɛʁ.siʁ/
	future	éclaircirai /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁe/	éclairciras /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁa/	éclaircira /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁa/	éclaircirons /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁɔ̃/	éclaircirez /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁe/	éclairciront /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	éclaircirais /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁɛ/	éclaircirais /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁɛ/	éclaircirait /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁɛ/	éclaircirions /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁjɔ̃/	éclairciriez /e.klɛʁ.si.ʁje/	éclairciraient /e.klɛʁ.si.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	éclaircisse /e.klɛʁ.sis/	éclaircisses /e.klɛʁ.sis/	éclaircisse /e.klɛʁ.sis/	éclaircissions /e.klɛʁ.si.sjɔ̃/	éclaircissiez /e.klɛʁ.si.sje/	éclaircissent /e.klɛʁ.sis/
	imperfect2	éclaircisse /e.klɛʁ.sis/	éclaircisses /e.klɛʁ.sis/	éclaircît /e.klɛʁ.si/	éclaircissions /e.klɛʁ.si.sjɔ̃/	éclaircissiez /e.klɛʁ.si.sje/	éclaircissent /e.klɛʁ.sis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	éclaircis /e.klɛʁ.si/	—	éclaircissons /e.klɛʁ.si.sɔ̃/	éclaircissez /e.klɛʁ.si.se/	—
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “éclaircir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.