traiter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French traicter, from Old French tretier, traitier, traiter, from Latin tractāre (“to pull, manage”), from the past participle stem of trahō (“to draw, pull”) (cf. tractus, whence French trait). See also tracter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɛ.te/ ~ /tʁe.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trai‧ter

Verb

traiter

1. (transitive) to treat (someone) (a particular way)

   bien traiter quelqu’un ― to treat someone well

2. (transitive) to render treatment (usually medical) [with pour ‘for a condition’]

   être traité pour, se faire traiter pour ― to undergo treatment for (a condition)

3. (transitive) to process, spray, coat

   Les champs de blé étaient traités avec des pesticides par avion. ― The wheat fields were aerially sprayed with pesticide.

4. (transitive, data processing) to process

   Les opérateurs de l’équipe de nuit traitent les tâches par lots. ― The night shift operators process batch jobs.

5. (transitive) to call, to label (someone) [with de ‘something negative’]

   Synonyms: qualifier, taxer

   Ils l’ont traitée de menteuse. ― They called her a liar.

   Il m’a traité de tous les noms. ― He called me every name under the sun.

6. (intransitive) to deal with, to handle, to be concerned with [with de ‘a subject or theme’]

   Cet article traitera de sujets très sérieux. ― This article will deal with very serious subjects.

Conjugation

Conjugation of traiter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	traiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	traitant /tʁɛ.tɑ̃/ or /tʁe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		traité /tʁɛ.te/ or /tʁe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	traite /tʁɛt/	traites /tʁɛt/	traite /tʁɛt/	traitons /tʁɛ.tɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tɔ̃/	traitez /tʁɛ.te/ or /tʁe.te/	traitent /tʁɛt/
	imperfect	traitais /tʁɛ.tɛ/ or /tʁe.tɛ/	traitais /tʁɛ.tɛ/ or /tʁe.tɛ/	traitait /tʁɛ.tɛ/ or /tʁe.tɛ/	traitions /tʁɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tjɔ̃/	traitiez /tʁɛ.tje/ or /tʁe.tje/	traitaient /tʁɛ.tɛ/ or /tʁe.tɛ/
	past historic2	traitai /tʁɛ.te/ or /tʁe.te/	traitas /tʁɛ.ta/ or /tʁe.ta/	traita /tʁɛ.ta/ or /tʁe.ta/	traitâmes /tʁɛ.tam/ or /tʁe.tam/	traitâtes /tʁɛ.tat/ or /tʁe.tat/	traitèrent /tʁɛ.tɛʁ/ or /tʁe.tɛʁ/
	future	traiterai /tʁɛ.tʁe/ or /tʁe.tʁe/	traiteras /tʁɛ.tʁa/ or /tʁe.tʁa/	traitera /tʁɛ.tʁa/ or /tʁe.tʁa/	traiterons /tʁɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tʁɔ̃/	traiterez /tʁɛ.tʁe/ or /tʁe.tʁe/	traiteront /tʁɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	traiterais /tʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /tʁe.tʁɛ/	traiterais /tʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /tʁe.tʁɛ/	traiterait /tʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /tʁe.tʁɛ/	traiterions /tʁɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	traiteriez /tʁɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /tʁe.tə.ʁje/	traiteraient /tʁɛ.tʁɛ/ or /tʁe.tʁɛ/
(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	traite /tʁɛt/	traites /tʁɛt/	traite /tʁɛt/	traitions /tʁɛ.tjɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tjɔ̃/	traitiez /tʁɛ.tje/ or /tʁe.tje/	traitent /tʁɛt/
	imperfect2	traitasse /tʁɛ.tas/ or /tʁe.tas/	traitasses /tʁɛ.tas/ or /tʁe.tas/	traitât /tʁɛ.ta/ or /tʁe.ta/	traitassions /tʁɛ.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /tʁe.ta.sjɔ̃/	traitassiez /tʁɛ.ta.sje/ or /tʁe.ta.sje/	traitassent /tʁɛ.tas/ or /tʁe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	traite /tʁɛt/	—	traitons /tʁɛ.tɔ̃/ or /tʁe.tɔ̃/	traitez /tʁɛ.te/ or /tʁe.te/	—
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

• traitement
• sous-traiter
• traiter de tous les noms

Related terms

• traire
• trait
• traité

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• attérir, atterri, attirer, retirât, retrait, terrait, titrera, traitre, traître