enrayer

French

Etymology

en- +‎ rai (“spoke (of wheel)”) +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• Audio:

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Verb

enrayer

1. to slow down, brake
2. to curb, check
3. to jam, to block (a weapon)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of enrayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	enrayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	enrayant /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		enrayé /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	enraye or enraie /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enrayes or enraies /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enraye or enraie /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enrayons /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɔ̃/	enrayez /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.je/	enrayent or enraient /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/
	imperfect	enrayais /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɛ/	enrayais /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɛ/	enrayait /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɛ/	enrayions /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.jɔ̃/	enrayiez /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.je/	enrayaient /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɛ/
	past historic2	enrayai /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.je/	enrayas /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ja/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ja/	enraya /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ja/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ja/	enrayâmes /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jam/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jam/	enrayâtes /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jat/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jat/	enrayèrent /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɛʁ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɛʁ/
	future	enrayerai or enraierai /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁe/	enrayeras or enraieras /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁa/	enrayera or enraiera /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁa/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁa/	enrayerons or enraierons /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁɔ̃/	enrayerez or enraierez /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁe/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁe/	enrayeront or enraieront /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	enrayerais or enraierais /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁɛ/	enrayerais or enraierais /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁɛ/	enrayerait or enraierait /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁɛ/	enrayerions or enraierions /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	enrayeriez or enraieriez /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jə.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁje/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ʁje/	enrayeraient or enraieraient /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.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	enraye or enraie /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enrayes or enraies /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enraye or enraie /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	enrayions /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.jɔ̃/	enrayiez /ɑ̃.ʁɛj.je/	enrayent or enraient /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/
	imperfect2	enrayasse /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jas/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jas/	enrayasses /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jas/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jas/	enrayât /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ja/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ja/	enrayassions /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ja.sjɔ̃/	enrayassiez /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.ja.sje/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.ja.sje/	enrayassent /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jas/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	enraye or enraie /ɑ̃.ʁɛj/ or /ɑ̃.ʁɛ/	—	enrayons /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.jɔ̃/	enrayez /ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je/ or /ɑ̃.ʁe.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

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