mériter

See also: meriter

French

Etymology

From mérite, or borrowed from Latin meritāre, from meritus. Replaced inherited Old French merir, from merere.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /me.ʁi.te/
Audio: (file)

Verb

mériter

to deserve, merit

Conjugation

Conjugation of mériter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	mériter
present participle or gerund¹	simple	méritant /me.ʁi.tɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mérité /me.ʁi.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mérite /me.ʁit/	mérites /me.ʁit/	mérite /me.ʁit/	méritons /me.ʁi.tɔ̃/	méritez /me.ʁi.te/	méritent /me.ʁit/
	imperfect	méritais /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritais /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritait /me.ʁi.tɛ/	méritions /me.ʁi.tjɔ̃/	méritiez /me.ʁi.tje/	méritaient /me.ʁi.tɛ/
	past historic²	méritai /me.ʁi.te/	méritas /me.ʁi.ta/	mérita /me.ʁi.ta/	méritâmes /me.ʁi.tam/	méritâtes /me.ʁi.tat/	méritèrent /me.ʁi.tɛʁ/
	future	mériterai /me.ʁi.tʁe/	mériteras /me.ʁi.tʁa/	méritera /me.ʁi.tʁa/	mériterons /me.ʁi.tʁɔ̃/	mériterez /me.ʁi.tʁe/	mériteront /me.ʁi.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mériterais /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterais /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterait /me.ʁi.tʁɛ/	mériterions /me.ʁi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	mériteriez /me.ʁi.tə.ʁje/	mériteraient /me.ʁi.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	mérite /me.ʁit/	mérites /me.ʁit/	mérite /me.ʁit/	méritions /me.ʁi.tjɔ̃/	méritiez /me.ʁi.tje/	méritent /me.ʁit/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	méritasse /me.ʁi.tas/	méritasses /me.ʁi.tas/	méritât /me.ʁi.ta/	méritassions /me.ʁi.ta.sjɔ̃/	méritassiez /me.ʁi.ta.sje/	méritassent /me.ʁi.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	mérite /me.ʁit/	—	méritons /me.ʁi.tɔ̃/	méritez /me.ʁi.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).

Derived terms

tout travail mérite salaire

Anagrams

trirème