remettre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French remetre, inherited from Latin remittō. By surface analysis, re- +‎ mettre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.mɛtʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʁ

Verb

remettre

1. to put back, replace
2. to put (clothing etc.) back on
3. to restart (machine etc.)
4. (followed by the preposition à) to hand over, tender, hand in, deliver (to someone)
5. (followed by the preposition à) to put off, postpone (until)
6. to remember
7. to add (more)
8. to forgive, remit
9. (euphemistic) to throw up
10. (pronominal, followed by the preposition de) to get over, to recover (from something)
    • 1862, Victor Hugo, chapter 4, in Les Misérables, Tome I : Fantine, book 1:

      Quant à l’évêque, avoir vu la guillotine fut pour lui un choc, et il fut longtemps à s’en remettre.

      As for the bishop, seeing the guillotine had been a shock for him, and it took him a long time to get over it.

11. (in the passive voice, followed by the preposition de) to be out of the woods
12. (pronominal, followed by the preposition à) to take up again, start (to do something) again

    Il s’est remis à fumer. ― He's started smoking again.

13. (pronominal) to get back

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like mettre. That means it is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is remis, not *remettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with remi-, not *remetti-.

Conjugation of remettre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	remettre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	remettant /ʁə.mɛ.tɑ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		remis /ʁə.mi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	remet /ʁə.mɛ/	remettons /ʁə.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɔ̃/	remettez /ʁə.mɛ.te/ or /ʁə.me.te/	remettent /ʁə.mɛt/
	imperfect	remettais /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettais /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettait /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/	remettions /ʁə.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tjɔ̃/	remettiez /ʁə.mɛ.tje/ or /ʁə.me.tje/	remettaient /ʁə.mɛ.tɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tɛ/
	past historic2	remis /ʁə.mi/	remis /ʁə.mi/	remit /ʁə.mi/	remîmes /ʁə.mim/	remîtes /ʁə.mit/	remirent /ʁə.miʁ/
	future	remettrai /ʁə.mɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.me.tʁe/	remettras /ʁə.mɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.me.tʁa/	remettra /ʁə.mɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.me.tʁa/	remettrons /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɔ̃/	remettrez /ʁə.mɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.me.tʁe/	remettront /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	remettrais /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrais /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrait /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.tʁɛ/	remettrions /ʁə.mɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tʁi.jɔ̃/	remettriez /ʁə.mɛ.tʁi.je/ or /ʁə.me.tʁi.je/	remettraient /ʁə.mɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.me.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	remette /ʁə.mɛt/	remettes /ʁə.mɛt/	remette /ʁə.mɛt/	remettions /ʁə.mɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tjɔ̃/	remettiez /ʁə.mɛ.tje/ or /ʁə.me.tje/	remettent /ʁə.mɛt/
	imperfect2	remisse /ʁə.mis/	remisses /ʁə.mis/	remît /ʁə.mi/	remissions /ʁə.mi.sjɔ̃/	remissiez /ʁə.mi.sje/	remissent /ʁə.mis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	remets /ʁə.mɛ/	—	remettons /ʁə.mɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ʁə.me.tɔ̃/	remettez /ʁə.mɛ.te/ or /ʁə.me.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

• en remettre une couche
• remettre à sa place
• remettre en cause
• remettre en question
• remettre le couvert
• remettre sur le tapis
• remettre les pendules à l’heure

Related terms

• rémission

Further reading

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

Middle French

Alternative forms

• remectre
• remestre
• remetre

Etymology

Old French remetre, equivalent to re- + mettre (“to put”).

Verb

remettre

1. (transitive) to put back