montrer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French monstrer, from Old French monstrer, semi-learned form of older moustrer, mostrer, from Latin mōnstrāre. Cognate with Spanish mostrar, Italian mostrare, English muster.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔ̃.tʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

montrer

1. to show

   Montre-le-moi.

   Show it to me.

   • 2018, Zaz, Résigne-moi:

     Je rêve de plus me juger, car la vie me montre ce que je dois affronter.

     I dream of judging myself more, because life shows me what I must face.

2. to point to
3. to point out
4. (reflexive) to display, to demonstrate one's characteristics
5. (reflexive) to show off
6. (reflexive) to appear; to seem

Conjugation

Conjugation of montrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	montrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	montrant /mɔ̃.tʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		montré /mɔ̃.tʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montres /mɔ̃tʁ/	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montrons /mɔ̃.tʁɔ̃/	montrez /mɔ̃.tʁe/	montrent /mɔ̃tʁ/
	imperfect	montrais /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrais /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrait /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/	montrions /mɔ̃.tʁi.jɔ̃/	montriez /mɔ̃.tʁi.je/	montraient /mɔ̃.tʁɛ/
	past historic2	montrai /mɔ̃.tʁe/	montras /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montra /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montrâmes /mɔ̃.tʁam/	montrâtes /mɔ̃.tʁat/	montrèrent /mɔ̃.tʁɛʁ/
	future	montrerai /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁe/	montreras /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁa/	montrera /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁa/	montrerons /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/	montrerez /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁe/	montreront /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	montrerais /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerais /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerait /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁɛ/	montrerions /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	montreriez /mɔ̃.tʁə.ʁje/	montreraient /mɔ̃.tʁə.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	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montres /mɔ̃tʁ/	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	montrions /mɔ̃.tʁi.jɔ̃/	montriez /mɔ̃.tʁi.je/	montrent /mɔ̃tʁ/
	imperfect2	montrasse /mɔ̃.tʁas/	montrasses /mɔ̃.tʁas/	montrât /mɔ̃.tʁa/	montrassions /mɔ̃.tʁa.sjɔ̃/	montrassiez /mɔ̃.tʁa.sje/	montrassent /mɔ̃.tʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	montre /mɔ̃tʁ/	—	montrons /mɔ̃.tʁɔ̃/	montrez /mɔ̃.tʁe/	—
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

• montre
• montrer du doigt
• montrer le bout de son nez
• montrer le poing
• montrer les dents
• montrer l’exemple
• montrer patte blanche
• montrer son vrai visage
• se montrer sous son meilleur jour

Further reading

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

Norman

Verb

montrer

1. Alternative form of mouontrer (“to show”)