vaciller

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vacillāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /va.si.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

vaciller

1. to vacillate
2. to flicker out (as a candle)

Conjugation

Conjugation of vaciller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	vaciller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	vacillant /va.si.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		vacillé /va.si.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vacille /va.sij/	vacilles /va.sij/	vacille /va.sij/	vacillons /va.si.jɔ̃/	vacillez /va.si.je/	vacillent /va.sij/
	imperfect	vacillais /va.si.jɛ/	vacillais /va.si.jɛ/	vacillait /va.si.jɛ/	vacillions /va.sij.jɔ̃/	vacilliez /va.sij.je/	vacillaient /va.si.jɛ/
	past historic2	vacillai /va.si.je/	vacillas /va.si.ja/	vacilla /va.si.ja/	vacillâmes /va.si.jam/	vacillâtes /va.si.jat/	vacillèrent /va.si.jɛʁ/
	future	vacillerai /va.sij.ʁe/	vacilleras /va.sij.ʁa/	vacillera /va.sij.ʁa/	vacillerons /va.sij.ʁɔ̃/	vacillerez /va.sij.ʁe/	vacilleront /va.sij.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	vacillerais /va.sij.ʁɛ/	vacillerais /va.sij.ʁɛ/	vacillerait /va.sij.ʁɛ/	vacillerions /va.si.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	vacilleriez /va.si.jə.ʁje/	vacilleraient /va.sij.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	vacille /va.sij/	vacilles /va.sij/	vacille /va.sij/	vacillions /va.sij.jɔ̃/	vacilliez /va.sij.je/	vacillent /va.sij/
	imperfect2	vacillasse /va.si.jas/	vacillasses /va.si.jas/	vacillât /va.si.ja/	vacillassions /va.si.ja.sjɔ̃/	vacillassiez /va.si.ja.sje/	vacillassent /va.si.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vacille /va.sij/	—	vacillons /va.si.jɔ̃/	vacillez /va.si.je/	—
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

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

Latin

Verb

vaciller

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of vacillō