quêter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French quester, from Latin quaestāre (“to search”), from quaestus. Cognate with English quest.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛ.te/ ~ /ke.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

quêter

1. to search for; to look for
2. to beg (for money)

Conjugation

Conjugation of quêter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	quêter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	quêtant /kɛ.tɑ̃/ or /ke.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		quêté /kɛ.te/ or /ke.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	quête /kɛt/	quêtes /kɛt/	quête /kɛt/	quêtons /kɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ke.tɔ̃/	quêtez /kɛ.te/ or /ke.te/	quêtent /kɛt/
	imperfect	quêtais /kɛ.tɛ/ or /ke.tɛ/	quêtais /kɛ.tɛ/ or /ke.tɛ/	quêtait /kɛ.tɛ/ or /ke.tɛ/	quêtions /kɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ke.tjɔ̃/	quêtiez /kɛ.tje/ or /ke.tje/	quêtaient /kɛ.tɛ/ or /ke.tɛ/
	past historic2	quêtai /kɛ.te/ or /ke.te/	quêtas /kɛ.ta/ or /ke.ta/	quêta /kɛ.ta/ or /ke.ta/	quêtâmes /kɛ.tam/ or /ke.tam/	quêtâtes /kɛ.tat/ or /ke.tat/	quêtèrent /kɛ.tɛʁ/ or /ke.tɛʁ/
	future	quêterai /kɛ.tʁe/ or /ke.tʁe/	quêteras /kɛ.tʁa/ or /ke.tʁa/	quêtera /kɛ.tʁa/ or /ke.tʁa/	quêterons /kɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ke.tʁɔ̃/	quêterez /kɛ.tʁe/ or /ke.tʁe/	quêteront /kɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ke.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	quêterais /kɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ke.tʁɛ/	quêterais /kɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ke.tʁɛ/	quêterait /kɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ke.tʁɛ/	quêterions /kɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ke.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	quêteriez /kɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ke.tə.ʁje/	quêteraient /kɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ke.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	quête /kɛt/	quêtes /kɛt/	quête /kɛt/	quêtions /kɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /ke.tjɔ̃/	quêtiez /kɛ.tje/ or /ke.tje/	quêtent /kɛt/
	imperfect2	quêtasse /kɛ.tas/ or /ke.tas/	quêtasses /kɛ.tas/ or /ke.tas/	quêtât /kɛ.ta/ or /ke.ta/	quêtassions /kɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /ke.ta.sjɔ̃/	quêtassiez /kɛ.ta.sje/ or /ke.ta.sje/	quêtassent /kɛ.tas/ or /ke.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	quête /kɛt/	—	quêtons /kɛ.tɔ̃/ or /ke.tɔ̃/	quêtez /kɛ.te/ or /ke.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).

Synonyms

• chercher (more common)
• rechercher (more common)

Further reading

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