emballer

French

Etymology

From en- +‎ balle (“bundle, packet”) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ba.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

emballer

1. (transitive) to pack up; to wrap up; to parcel
2. (colloquial) to thrill, to turn on

   Cela ne m’emballe pas.

   I'm not keen on it.

3. (reflexive) to race
4. (reflexive, for a horse) to bolt
5. (reflexive, colloquial) to get carried away
   • February 6 2009, Le Point, Nicolas Sarkozy : "Je maintiens ma confiance" en Bernard Kouchner

     Un monsieur fait un livre, il ne m'appartient pas de juger de la qualité de ce livre. Dans ce livre, ce monsieur dit que Bernard Kouchner n'a rien fait d'illégal, et le petit système médiatique s'emballe et accuse monsieur Kouchner.

6. (reflexive, colloquial) to get ahead of oneself, to get one's hopes up
7. (transitive, colloquial) to make out with someone

Conjugation

Conjugation of emballer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	emballer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	emballant /ɑ̃.ba.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		emballé /ɑ̃.ba.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	emballe /ɑ̃.bal/	emballes /ɑ̃.bal/	emballe /ɑ̃.bal/	emballons /ɑ̃.ba.lɔ̃/	emballez /ɑ̃.ba.le/	emballent /ɑ̃.bal/
	imperfect	emballais /ɑ̃.ba.lɛ/	emballais /ɑ̃.ba.lɛ/	emballait /ɑ̃.ba.lɛ/	emballions /ɑ̃.ba.ljɔ̃/	emballiez /ɑ̃.ba.lje/	emballaient /ɑ̃.ba.lɛ/
	past historic2	emballai /ɑ̃.ba.le/	emballas /ɑ̃.ba.la/	emballa /ɑ̃.ba.la/	emballâmes /ɑ̃.ba.lam/	emballâtes /ɑ̃.ba.lat/	emballèrent /ɑ̃.ba.lɛʁ/
	future	emballerai /ɑ̃.bal.ʁe/	emballeras /ɑ̃.bal.ʁa/	emballera /ɑ̃.bal.ʁa/	emballerons /ɑ̃.bal.ʁɔ̃/	emballerez /ɑ̃.bal.ʁe/	emballeront /ɑ̃.bal.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	emballerais /ɑ̃.bal.ʁɛ/	emballerais /ɑ̃.bal.ʁɛ/	emballerait /ɑ̃.bal.ʁɛ/	emballerions /ɑ̃.ba.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	emballeriez /ɑ̃.ba.lə.ʁje/	emballeraient /ɑ̃.bal.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	emballe /ɑ̃.bal/	emballes /ɑ̃.bal/	emballe /ɑ̃.bal/	emballions /ɑ̃.ba.ljɔ̃/	emballiez /ɑ̃.ba.lje/	emballent /ɑ̃.bal/
	imperfect2	emballasse /ɑ̃.ba.las/	emballasses /ɑ̃.ba.las/	emballât /ɑ̃.ba.la/	emballassions /ɑ̃.ba.la.sjɔ̃/	emballassiez /ɑ̃.ba.la.sje/	emballassent /ɑ̃.ba.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	emballe /ɑ̃.bal/	—	emballons /ɑ̃.ba.lɔ̃/	emballez /ɑ̃.ba.le/	—
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).

Related terms

• déballer
• emballage
• emballeur

Descendants

• → Portuguese: embalar
• → Romanian: ambala

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• remballe