achever

From Middle French achever, from Old French achever, from Vulgar Latin *accapō, *accapāre. Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese, and Spanish acabar and English achieve.

• IPA^(key): /aʃ.ve/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: achevai, achevé, achevée, achevées, achevés, achevez

achever

1. (transitive) to finish, to complete
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche‎^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter II:

     Ayant donc achevé ses préparatifs, il ne voulut pas attendre davantage pour mettre à exécution son projet.

     Having thus completed his preparations, he did not want to wait any longer to put his project into execution.

2. (transitive) to finish off (someone who is already incapacitated)
3. (reflexive, s'achever) to finish

• False friend of English achieve (more likely to be rendered atteindre (“to attain”) or réaliser (“realize”) in French).

This verb is conjugated mostly like the regular -er verbs (parler and chanter and so on), but the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-. For example, in the third-person singular present indicative, we have il achève rather than *il acheve. Other verbs conjugated this way include lever and mener. Related but distinct conjugations include those of appeler and préférer.

• achevé
• achevé d'imprimer
• achèvement
• inachevé

• chef

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

• vachère

From Old French, from Vulgar Latin *accapō, *accapāre.

achever

1. to finish; to complete

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

• finir

• chief (“head”)

• French: achever