tomber

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French tomber, from Old French tumber, itself either of expressive/onomatopoeic origin (compare also Catalan and Portuguese tombar; Spanish tumbar; Romanian tumbă; Italian tombolare etc.), or alternatively possibly from a Frankish *tūmōn (“to rotate, reel, sway”), from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”), of uncertain origin. More at tumb.

Displaced the native choir, inherited from cadō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔ̃.be/
• Hyphenation: tom‧ber

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e

Verb

tomber

1. to fall

   Un tamis placé à l’intérieur du dispositif empêchera les choses de tomber dans le tube.

   A screen placed inside the device will keep things from falling into the tube.

2. to come down

   Laisse la pluie tomber sur nous et recouvre le pays de cette eau qui donne la vie.

   Let the rains come down upon us and cover the land with life-giving water.

3. (intransitive) to bump into, to come across; to be received by (when making a telephone call) [with sur ‘someone’]

   J’ai téléphoné à Robert mais je suis tombé sur Marie. ― I phoned Robert but I got Marie.

4. (in idioms) to become, to get

   tomber amoureux ― to fall in love

   tomber malade ― to fall ill, to get sick

   tomber enceinte ― to fall pregnant, to get pregnant

Conjugation

• This verb uses the auxiliary verb avoir when used transitively (or with a transitive sense, even when the complement is omitted); otherwise (when it is intransitive), it uses être.

Conjugation of tomber (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tomber
	compound	avoir or être + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tombant /tɔ̃.bɑ̃/
	compound	ayant or étant + past participle
past participle		tombé /tɔ̃.be/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tombe /tɔ̃b/	tombes /tɔ̃b/	tombe /tɔ̃b/	tombons /tɔ̃.bɔ̃/	tombez /tɔ̃.be/	tombent /tɔ̃b/
	imperfect	tombais /tɔ̃.bɛ/	tombais /tɔ̃.bɛ/	tombait /tɔ̃.bɛ/	tombions /tɔ̃.bjɔ̃/	tombiez /tɔ̃.bje/	tombaient /tɔ̃.bɛ/
	past historic2	tombai /tɔ̃.be/	tombas /tɔ̃.ba/	tomba /tɔ̃.ba/	tombâmes /tɔ̃.bam/	tombâtes /tɔ̃.bat/	tombèrent /tɔ̃.bɛʁ/
	future	tomberai /tɔ̃.bʁe/	tomberas /tɔ̃.bʁa/	tombera /tɔ̃.bʁa/	tomberons /tɔ̃.bʁɔ̃/	tomberez /tɔ̃.bʁe/	tomberont /tɔ̃.bʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tomberais /tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	tomberais /tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	tomberait /tɔ̃.bʁɛ/	tomberions /tɔ̃.bə.ʁjɔ̃/	tomberiez /tɔ̃.bə.ʁje/	tomberaient /tɔ̃.bʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir or être + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir or être + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir or être + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir or être + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir or être + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	tombe /tɔ̃b/	tombes /tɔ̃b/	tombe /tɔ̃b/	tombions /tɔ̃.bjɔ̃/	tombiez /tɔ̃.bje/	tombent /tɔ̃b/
	imperfect2	tombasse /tɔ̃.bas/	tombasses /tɔ̃.bas/	tombât /tɔ̃.ba/	tombassions /tɔ̃.ba.sjɔ̃/	tombassiez /tɔ̃.ba.sje/	tombassent /tɔ̃.bas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir or être + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir or être + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tombe /tɔ̃b/	—	tombons /tɔ̃.bɔ̃/	tombez /tɔ̃.be/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir or être + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir or être + past participle	simple imperative of avoir or être + 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

• à tomber par terre
• la foudre ne tombe jamais deux fois au même endroit
• la pomme ne tombe jamais loin de l’arbre
• laisser tomber
• les bras m’en tombent
• qui fait le malin tombe dans le ravin
• tombé du camion
• tomber à la renverse
• tomber à l’eau
• tomber à pic
• tomber à plat
• tomber amoureux
• tomber comme un couperet
• tomber dans le panneau
• tomber dans les pommes
• tomber dans les vapes
• tomber dans l’oreille d’un sourd
• tomber de fatigue
• tomber de haut
• tomber de sommeil
• tomber de son piédestal
• tomber des nues
• tomber du ciel
• tomber en panne
• tomber en ruine
• tomber malade
• tomber sous le sens
• tomber sur
• tomber sur le nez
• tomber sur un os
• tombeur

 

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• trombe

Middle French

Alternative forms

• tumber

Etymology

From Old French tumber.

Verb

tomber

1. to fall

Conjugation

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

Conjugation of tomber

infinitive	simple	tomber
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle1 or gerund2	simple	tombant
	compound	present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle
past participle		tombé
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		ie (i’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ilz, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tombe	tombes	tombe	tombons	tombez	tombent
	imperfect	tombois, tomboys	tombois, tomboys	tomboit, tomboyt	tombions, tombyons	tombiez, tombyez	tomboient, tomboyent
	past historic	tomba	tombas	tomba	tombasmes	tombastes	tomberent
	future	tomberai, tomberay	tomberas	tombera	tomberons	tomberez	tomberont
	conditional	tomberois, tomberoys	tomberois, tomberoys	tomberoit, tomberoyt	tomberions, tomberyons	tomberiez, tomberyez	tomberoient, tomberoyent
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que ie (i’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ilz, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	tombe	tombes	tombe	tombons	tombez	tombent
	imperfect	tombasse	tombasses	tombast	tombassions	tombassiez	tombassent
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tombe	—	tombons	tombez	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679.
2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], op. cit., p. 180).

Descendants

• French: tomber, tumer (dialectal)