lésiner

French

Etymology

From lésine +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le.zi.ne/

• Audio

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Verb

lésiner

1. (intransitive) to skimp, to overly limit one's spending, to be frugal to an excessive degree

Conjugation

Conjugation of lésiner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	lésiner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	lésinant /le.zi.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		lésiné /le.zi.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	lésine /le.zin/	lésines /le.zin/	lésine /le.zin/	lésinons /le.zi.nɔ̃/	lésinez /le.zi.ne/	lésinent /le.zin/
	imperfect	lésinais /le.zi.nɛ/	lésinais /le.zi.nɛ/	lésinait /le.zi.nɛ/	lésinions /le.zi.njɔ̃/	lésiniez /le.zi.nje/	lésinaient /le.zi.nɛ/
	past historic2	lésinai /le.zi.ne/	lésinas /le.zi.na/	lésina /le.zi.na/	lésinâmes /le.zi.nam/	lésinâtes /le.zi.nat/	lésinèrent /le.zi.nɛʁ/
	future	lésinerai /le.zin.ʁe/	lésineras /le.zin.ʁa/	lésinera /le.zin.ʁa/	lésinerons /le.zin.ʁɔ̃/	lésinerez /le.zin.ʁe/	lésineront /le.zin.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	lésinerais /le.zin.ʁɛ/	lésinerais /le.zin.ʁɛ/	lésinerait /le.zin.ʁɛ/	lésinerions /le.zi.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	lésineriez /le.zi.nə.ʁje/	lésineraient /le.zin.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	lésine /le.zin/	lésines /le.zin/	lésine /le.zin/	lésinions /le.zi.njɔ̃/	lésiniez /le.zi.nje/	lésinent /le.zin/
	imperfect2	lésinasse /le.zi.nas/	lésinasses /le.zi.nas/	lésinât /le.zi.na/	lésinassions /le.zi.na.sjɔ̃/	lésinassiez /le.zi.na.sje/	lésinassent /le.zi.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	lésine /le.zin/	—	lésinons /le.zi.nɔ̃/	lésinez /le.zi.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: 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).

Related terms

• lésinerie

Further reading

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