chassez

Chassez is a form of the French verb chasser, which means to hunt, to chase, or to drive away. In modern usage, chassez appears as the present tense for the second-person plural vous (you hunt, you are hunting) and as the imperative mood used to address a group (Chassez ! = Hunt! or Drive them out!). It is commonly found in both literal hunting contexts and in figurative expressions.

Conjugation and forms

The verb chasser belongs to the first conjugation in French. In the present indicative, the full set is: je chasse, tu chasses, il chasse, nous chassons, vous chassez, ils chassent. The imperative forms include chasse (tu, informal singular) and chassez (vous, plural or formal). The form chassez thus serves both as a present tense form for vous and as an imperative plural.

Usage notes

Chassez is used in everyday French for hunting or pursuing someone or something, as well as in idiomatic phrases such as chasser les idées reçues (to dispel preconceptions). The word can also appear in warnings or commands directed at a group. In all cases, its interpretation relies on context, particularly whether it is being used as a statement about a group’s action or as a command.

Related terms

Chasse refers to the act of hunting or the hunt itself, while chasseur denotes a hunter. The term is part of a broader family of expressions about pursuit, pursuit of goals, or driving away unwanted elements, both literally and metaphorically.