French

Verb

mettre

1. (transitive) to put; to place
   • 1993, Aline Tauzin, Contes arabes de Mauritanie, ISBN 2865374599, page 133:

     il a pris un chiffon grisâtre et l'a mis sur la plaie

     He took a grayish cloth and placed it over the wound.

2. (transitive, of clothing) to put on
   • 2005, Marc Le Goupils, Revue de Paris, page 350:

     Elle n'avait pas mis son écharpe sur ses cheveux blonds

     She hadn't per her scarf over her blond hair.

3. (transitive) to set (to lay a table)
   • 1846, Jean Mallat de Bassilan, Les Philippines: histoire, géographie, moeurs, agriculture, industrie et commerce des colonies espagnoles dans l'Océanie, page 196:

     Il est déjà temps de manger / Mettez la table et la nappe

     It's already time to eat / Lay the table, put the cloth on.

4. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to start (+ à) (something / doing something)
   • 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné, XXXIII:

     J'ouvris au hasard, je me rapprochai d'elle, elle appuya son épaule à mon épaule, et nous nous mîmes à lire chacun de notre côté, tout bas, la même page.

     I opened at random, I got close to her, she pressed her shoulder against my shoulder, and we each of us began on our own silently to read the same page.

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like battre except that its past participle is mis, not *mettu, and its past historic and imperfect subjunctive are formed with mi-, not *metti-.

Related terms

Middle French

Alternative forms

• mectre
• metre

Etymology

Old French metre, from Latin mittō.

Verb

mettre

1. to put; to place

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Descendants

• French: mettre

Norman

Alternative forms

• maette (Guernsey)
• mett' (Jersey)

Etymology

From Old French metre, from Latin mittō, mittere.

Pronunciation

Verb

mettre

1. (Jersey) to put

Antonyms

• ôter ‎(“to remove”)

Derived terms