brûler
/bʁy.le/
To burn in French is brûler.
The verb brûler means to consume, injure or change the condition of something through the action of fire or heat. If you want to say that you accidentally burned yourself, such as on a stove, you should use the reflexive form se brûler.
Meaning: to consume, injure, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat (verb)
Which one should you use?
Like in English, brûler can be used both transitively to mean burning something and intransitively to mean something is on fire or is burning.
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
The past participle brûlé is used to mean burnt and is used when forming compound tenses or when acting as an adjective.
How do you pronounce it?
/bʁy.le/
Did you know?
- In French, brûler is used to describe running a red light, which is brûler un feu rouge.
- The phrase brûler les étapes literally means 'to burn the stages' but is used to say someone is rushing or skipping necessary steps.
- The spelling of brûler includes a circumflex accent over the 'u', which in many French words marks where an 's' used to be in Middle French, such as in 'brusler'.
Examples in context
- Ce bois ne veut pas brûler.This wood won't burn.This sentence is useful for showing how to use brûler with wood.Tatoeba #864945 by sacredceltic, translation #56767 by CK
- Il n'y avait rien à brûler.There was nothing to burn.This sentence is useful for expressing the lack of things to burn using brûler.Tatoeba #5730130 by Aiji, translation #3825993 by CK
- L'isolation ne devrait pas brûler.The insulation shouldn't burn.This sentence is useful for describing the properties of insulation using brûler.Tatoeba #9559872 by sacredceltic, translation #4496204 by CK
- Le feu a brûlé toute la forêt.The fire burned the entire forest.
- Finalement, elle a brûlé tous les papiers.Finally, she burned all the papers.
- On a vraiment bien crâmé le barbecue hier soir !We really burned the barbecue last night!
- 27 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Hugo and Léa are in the kitchen after a cooking mishap.
- HugoOh non, le rôti va brûler !Oh no, the roast is going to burn!
- LéaVite, éteins le feu, Hugo.Quick, turn off the heat, Hugo.
- HugoC'est trop tard, ça a déjà brûlé.It's too late, it already burned.
- LéaC'est dommage, il est tout noir.That's a shame, it's all black.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “burn” translations and entries brûler, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries brûler, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
