plaire

Inherited from Middle French plaire, from Old French plaire, from plaisir, from Latin placēre. The original infinitive now became a noun, and the infinitive ending was changed to -aire by analogy with the future and conditional forms in plair-. The future stem came from Latin pluperfect stem placuer- (placueram, placuerās, ...); some other verbs also use the pluperfect stem for their future stems (but not in the case of pluperfect forms containing -s- or -x-), for example tenir, tiendrai (if using the infinitive form, it results on expected *tenirai < tenī́re hábeō), see also Appendix:French verbs#Origins.

• IPA^(key): /plɛʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

plaire

1. (intransitive, with indirect object) to please, to appeal to (usually translated into English as like with exchange of subject and object)

   Cet homme me plait ― I like/fancy that man. (literally, “That man appeals to me.”)

   Cette robe me plait. ― I like this dress.

2. (reflexive) to enjoy (oneself)

   Je me suis plu à Paris. ― I liked it in Paris.

plaire and its derived verbs conjugate like taire, except that the third person singular of the present indicative may take a circumflex on the 'i'.

plaire and its derived verbs conjugate like taire, except that the third person singular of the present indicative may take a circumflex on the 'i'.

• à Dieu ne plaise
• plaisance
• plaisir
• s’il te plaît
• s’il vous plaît

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

• palier, pareil, pilera, pliera, replia

From Old French plaire.

plaire

1. to please

• French: plaire

From a variant of Old Occitan plazer (probably reformed by analogy from conjugated forms; compare French plaire vs. plaisir, and Catalan plaure vs. plaer), from Latin placeō, placēre (“to please”).

• Audio (Languedoc):

  (file)

plaire (Languedoc)

1. to please

   Synonym: agradar

• plàser (Gascony)
• plàder (Gascony)
• har gai (Gascony)

• desplaire
• desagradar
• desplàser

• plaser (“pleasure”)

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 500.

plaire

1. alternative infinitive of plaisir.

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb ends in a palatal stem, so there is an extra i before the e of some endings. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.