écouler

French

Etymology

From é- +‎ couler, or possibly from Vulgar Latin *excolāre, from Latin cōlāre. Compare Italian scolare, Portuguese escoar, Spanish escolar, Sicilian sculari.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.ku.le/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

écouler

1. (transitive) to sell off, to shift

   Il eut beaucoup de peine à écouler sa marchandise.

   He had great difficulty selling off his merchandise.

2. (reflexive) to flow

   Le liquide s’écoule. ― The liquid is flowing.

3. (reflexive, of a crowd) to disband, to scatter

   La foule s’écoule. ― The crowd is disbanding.

4. (reflexive, of time) to pass, to elapse

   Une année, deux années s’écoulèrent. ― One year, two years passed by.

5. (reflexive, of one's fortune) to diminish, to dwindle away slowly

Conjugation

Conjugation of écouler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	écouler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	écoulant /e.ku.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		écoulé /e.ku.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	écoule /e.kul/	écoules /e.kul/	écoule /e.kul/	écoulons /e.ku.lɔ̃/	écoulez /e.ku.le/	écoulent /e.kul/
	imperfect	écoulais /e.ku.lɛ/	écoulais /e.ku.lɛ/	écoulait /e.ku.lɛ/	écoulions /e.ku.ljɔ̃/	écouliez /e.ku.lje/	écoulaient /e.ku.lɛ/
	past historic2	écoulai /e.ku.le/	écoulas /e.ku.la/	écoula /e.ku.la/	écoulâmes /e.ku.lam/	écoulâtes /e.ku.lat/	écoulèrent /e.ku.lɛʁ/
	future	écoulerai /e.kul.ʁe/	écouleras /e.kul.ʁa/	écoulera /e.kul.ʁa/	écoulerons /e.kul.ʁɔ̃/	écoulerez /e.kul.ʁe/	écouleront /e.kul.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	écoulerais /e.kul.ʁɛ/	écoulerais /e.kul.ʁɛ/	écoulerait /e.kul.ʁɛ/	écoulerions /e.ku.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	écouleriez /e.ku.lə.ʁje/	écouleraient /e.kul.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	écoule /e.kul/	écoules /e.kul/	écoule /e.kul/	écoulions /e.ku.ljɔ̃/	écouliez /e.ku.lje/	écoulent /e.kul/
	imperfect2	écoulasse /e.ku.las/	écoulasses /e.ku.las/	écoulât /e.ku.la/	écoulassions /e.ku.la.sjɔ̃/	écoulassiez /e.ku.la.sje/	écoulassent /e.ku.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	écoule /e.kul/	—	écoulons /e.ku.lɔ̃/	écoulez /e.ku.le/	—
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).

Derived terms

• écoulement

Further reading

• “écouler”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “écouler” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.
• “écouler” in Dico en ligne Le Robert.

Anagrams

• écroule, écroulé