serpenter

French

Etymology

From serpent +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

serpenter

1. to snake, wind (move in a winding path)

Conjugation

Conjugation of serpenter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	serpenter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	serpentant /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		serpenté /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	serpente /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpentes /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpente /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpentons /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɔ̃/	serpentez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.te/	serpentent /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/
	imperfect	serpentais /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɛ/	serpentais /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɛ/	serpentait /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɛ/	serpentions /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tjɔ̃/	serpentiez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tje/	serpentaient /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɛ/
	past historic2	serpentai /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.te/	serpentas /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.ta/	serpenta /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.ta/	serpentâmes /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tam/	serpentâtes /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tat/	serpentèrent /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɛʁ/
	future	serpenterai /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁe/	serpenteras /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁa/	serpentera /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁa/	serpenterons /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɔ̃/	serpenterez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁe/	serpenteront /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	serpenterais /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɛ/	serpenterais /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɛ/	serpenterait /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɛ/	serpenterions /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	serpenteriez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tə.ʁje/	serpenteraient /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tʁɛ/
(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	serpente /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpentes /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpente /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	serpentions /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tjɔ̃/	serpentiez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tje/	serpentent /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/
	imperfect2	serpentasse /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tas/	serpentasses /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tas/	serpentât /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.ta/	serpentassions /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/	serpentassiez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.ta.sje/	serpentassent /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	serpente /sɛʁ.pɑ̃t/	—	serpentons /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.tɔ̃/	serpentez /sɛʁ.pɑ̃.te/	—
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

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

Anagrams

• présenter