doutez

Doutez is the second-person plural present indicative form of the French verb douter, meaning to doubt. It is used with the subject vous and corresponds to “you doubt” in English. The same spelling serves as the present imperative for vous in certain stylistic or formal contexts, as in a command or exhortation such as Doutez de tout ce que l’on vous raconte.

Etymology and morphology: Douter comes from Old French douter, itself from Latin dubitare meaning to hesitate or doubt. In modern French, douter is treated as an -er verb with regular present-tense endings, though it retains some irregularities in related tenses. The full present tense forms are je doute, tu doutes, il doute, nous doutons, vous doutez, ils doutent, with doutez occupying the vous form.

Usage: Doutez expresses uncertainty, skepticism, or suspicion toward a statement, claim, or source. It can introduce doubt in discourse or encourage verification of information. Examples: Vous doutez de la véracité de ces affirmations. Doutez-vous de sa parole? Il faut vérifier les faits et ne pas prendre tout pour argent comptant; doutez jusqu’à ce que vous ayez des preuves.

Notes: Doutez is easy to confuse with the third-person plural form ils doutent and the related noun doute (doubt). In contemporary speech, the imperative sense of doutez is less common than other commands, but it remains correct and occurs in formal or literary registers.