cercler

French

Etymology

From cercle +‎ -er, or alternatively from Vulgar Latin *circlāre, from Late Latin circulāre, from Latin circulārī (and therefore a doublet of the borrowed circuler). Compare Italian cerchiare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.kle/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

cercler

1. (transitive) to ring, hoop, encircle (with)

Conjugation

Conjugation of cercler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cercler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	cerclant /sɛʁ.klɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cerclé /sɛʁ.kle/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cercle /sɛʁkl/	cercles /sɛʁkl/	cercle /sɛʁkl/	cerclons /sɛʁ.klɔ̃/	cerclez /sɛʁ.kle/	cerclent /sɛʁkl/
	imperfect	cerclais /sɛʁ.klɛ/	cerclais /sɛʁ.klɛ/	cerclait /sɛʁ.klɛ/	cerclions /sɛʁ.kli.jɔ̃/	cercliez /sɛʁ.kli.je/	cerclaient /sɛʁ.klɛ/
	past historic2	cerclai /sɛʁ.kle/	cerclas /sɛʁ.kla/	cercla /sɛʁ.kla/	cerclâmes /sɛʁ.klam/	cerclâtes /sɛʁ.klat/	cerclèrent /sɛʁ.klɛʁ/
	future	cerclerai /sɛʁ.klə.ʁe/	cercleras /sɛʁ.klə.ʁa/	cerclera /sɛʁ.klə.ʁa/	cerclerons /sɛʁ.klə.ʁɔ̃/	cerclerez /sɛʁ.klə.ʁe/	cercleront /sɛʁ.klə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cerclerais /sɛʁ.klə.ʁɛ/	cerclerais /sɛʁ.klə.ʁɛ/	cerclerait /sɛʁ.klə.ʁɛ/	cerclerions /sɛʁ.klə.ʁjɔ̃/	cercleriez /sɛʁ.klə.ʁje/	cercleraient /sɛʁ.klə.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	cercle /sɛʁkl/	cercles /sɛʁkl/	cercle /sɛʁkl/	cerclions /sɛʁ.kli.jɔ̃/	cercliez /sɛʁ.kli.je/	cerclent /sɛʁkl/
	imperfect2	cerclasse /sɛʁ.klas/	cerclasses /sɛʁ.klas/	cerclât /sɛʁ.kla/	cerclassions /sɛʁ.kla.sjɔ̃/	cerclassiez /sɛʁ.kla.sje/	cerclassent /sɛʁ.klas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cercle /sɛʁkl/	—	cerclons /sɛʁ.klɔ̃/	cerclez /sɛʁ.kle/	—
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

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