doutiez

Doutiez is a conjugated form of the French verb douter, meaning to doubt. It is the second-person plural form for the subject vous in two grammatical contexts: the present subjunctive (que vous doutiez) and the imperfect indicative (vous doutiez). The spelling is identical in these two moods, so the intended tense is determined by context.

In modern French, the present subjunctive use occurs in subordinate clauses after expressions of doubt, uncertainty, or necessity, often in formal or written language. For example: Il faut que vous doutiez des dires présentés, afin d’en vérifier les sources. In everyday speech, the present indicative vous doutez is more common when the speaker simply notes doubt in the present.

The imperfect indicative sense—“you were doubting” or “you used to doubt”—also appears with the same form, especially in narrative or descriptive passages. For example: Si vous doutiez de ses paroles, cela pourrait être vérifié plus tard. Because the form is shared across tenses, disambiguation relies on surrounding verbs and temporal markers.

Etymology traces doutiez to the verb douter, which derives from Old French douter and ultimately from Latin dubitare, meaning to hesitate or doubt. In usage, doutiez is primarily a grammatical form rather than a standalone lexical item, and it appears most often in written French or formal speech. See also douter; conjugation; French subjunctive and imperfect.