berner

See also: Berner

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French bren (“bran, excrement”), with metathesis (circa 1480s), having first had the meaning of "vanner le blé" or the scatological meaning of "fouiller d'excréments" present in Rabelais' writings. For semantic development, compare terms like shit talk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛʁ.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

berner

1. (transitive) to trick, to fool, to take in, to run circles around, to hoodwink

   Il s’est fait complètement berner.

   He was completely taken in.

   • 1924, Emmanuel Bove, Mes Amis‎^[1]:

     À présent, les deux amants devaient regarder le billet en transparence, comme une plaque photographique, pour s’assurer qu’il était bon. L’impression d’avoir été berné me rendait nerveux.

     Right now, the two lovers must have been holding the note up to the light like a photographic plate to check that it was real. The feeling that I had been tricked was making me nervous.

Conjugation

Conjugation of berner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	berner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bernant /bɛʁ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		berné /bɛʁ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	berne /bɛʁn/	bernes /bɛʁn/	berne /bɛʁn/	bernons /bɛʁ.nɔ̃/	bernez /bɛʁ.ne/	bernent /bɛʁn/
	imperfect	bernais /bɛʁ.nɛ/	bernais /bɛʁ.nɛ/	bernait /bɛʁ.nɛ/	bernions /bɛʁ.njɔ̃/	berniez /bɛʁ.nje/	bernaient /bɛʁ.nɛ/
	past historic2	bernai /bɛʁ.ne/	bernas /bɛʁ.na/	berna /bɛʁ.na/	bernâmes /bɛʁ.nam/	bernâtes /bɛʁ.nat/	bernèrent /bɛʁ.nɛʁ/
	future	bernerai /bɛʁ.nə.ʁe/	berneras /bɛʁ.nə.ʁa/	bernera /bɛʁ.nə.ʁa/	bernerons /bɛʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/	bernerez /bɛʁ.nə.ʁe/	berneront /bɛʁ.nə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bernerais /bɛʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bernerais /bɛʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bernerait /bɛʁ.nə.ʁɛ/	bernerions /bɛʁ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	berneriez /bɛʁ.nə.ʁje/	berneraient /bɛʁ.nə.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	berne /bɛʁn/	bernes /bɛʁn/	berne /bɛʁn/	bernions /bɛʁ.njɔ̃/	berniez /bɛʁ.nje/	bernent /bɛʁn/
	imperfect2	bernasse /bɛʁ.nas/	bernasses /bɛʁ.nas/	bernât /bɛʁ.na/	bernassions /bɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃/	bernassiez /bɛʁ.na.sje/	bernassent /bɛʁ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	berne /bɛʁn/	—	bernons /bɛʁ.nɔ̃/	bernez /bɛʁ.ne/	—
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

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