brouiller

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French brouiller, from Old French brouiller, from Vulgar Latin *brodiculāre, from *brodicāre (compare Lombard brodigar (“to soil, pollute”)), from Late Latin brodium (“broth, stew, mixture”), from Proto-Germanic *bruþą (“stock, broth”). More at English broth, broil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁu.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

brouiller

1. to blur
2. to mix up, confuse
3. to scramble (an egg)
4. to set at odds, put (someone) off (something)
5. to jam (a transmission), to scramble (a message)
6. (reflexive) to become blurred, get mixed up
7. (reflexive, ~ avec) to fall out
8. (reflexive, meteorology) to cloud over

Conjugation

Conjugation of brouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	brouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	brouillant /bʁu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		brouillé /bʁu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	brouille /bʁuj/	brouilles /bʁuj/	brouille /bʁuj/	brouillons /bʁu.jɔ̃/	brouillez /bʁu.je/	brouillent /bʁuj/
	imperfect	brouillais /bʁu.jɛ/	brouillais /bʁu.jɛ/	brouillait /bʁu.jɛ/	brouillions /bʁuj.jɔ̃/	brouilliez /bʁuj.je/	brouillaient /bʁu.jɛ/
	past historic2	brouillai /bʁu.je/	brouillas /bʁu.ja/	brouilla /bʁu.ja/	brouillâmes /bʁu.jam/	brouillâtes /bʁu.jat/	brouillèrent /bʁu.jɛʁ/
	future	brouillerai /bʁuj.ʁe/	brouilleras /bʁuj.ʁa/	brouillera /bʁuj.ʁa/	brouillerons /bʁuj.ʁɔ̃/	brouillerez /bʁuj.ʁe/	brouilleront /bʁuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	brouillerais /bʁuj.ʁɛ/	brouillerais /bʁuj.ʁɛ/	brouillerait /bʁuj.ʁɛ/	brouillerions /bʁu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	brouilleriez /bʁu.jə.ʁje/	brouilleraient /bʁuj.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	brouille /bʁuj/	brouilles /bʁuj/	brouille /bʁuj/	brouillions /bʁuj.jɔ̃/	brouilliez /bʁuj.je/	brouillent /bʁuj/
	imperfect2	brouillasse /bʁu.jas/	brouillasses /bʁu.jas/	brouillât /bʁu.ja/	brouillassions /bʁu.ja.sjɔ̃/	brouillassiez /bʁu.ja.sje/	brouillassent /bʁu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	brouille /bʁuj/	—	brouillons /bʁu.jɔ̃/	brouillez /bʁu.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).

Derived terms

• brouillable
• brouillage
• brouille
• brouiller les cartes
• brouiller les pistes
• brouillon
• débrouille
• débrouiller
• embrouille
• embrouiller
• œufs brouillés

 

Related terms

• brouillard

Descendants

• → Dutch: brouilleren
  • >? Sranan Tongo: bruya
• → Romanian: bruia

Further reading

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