eviter

Éviter is a French verb meaning to avoid or to prevent. It belongs to the first conjugation of French verbs ending in -er and is regular in its conjugation, with the stem évit-. In the present tense the forms are j'évite, tu évites, il évite, nous évitons, vous évitez, ils évitent. The past participle is évité, used with the auxiliary avoir in compound tenses (j'ai évité).

Étymology: The verb derives from Latin evitare “to shun,” passing into Old French as eviter. It is cognate with related Romance forms such as Italian evitare and Spanish evitar, and with the English word avoid.

Usage: Éviter is transitive and typically takes a direct object, as in éviter les pièges (to avoid traps) or éviter une erreur (to avoid a mistake). It is also commonly used with an infinitive to express avoidance of performing an action: éviter de faire quelque chose. In more formal or literary registers, it can govern a clause with que + subjonctif: éviter que cela ne se produise (to prevent that this should happen).

Common expressions and notes: The verb is frequently used in safety, risk management, and everyday planning contexts. Its negative construction is ne pas éviter, though this is rarely used to mean “refuse to avoid” in typical speech; instead one often rephrases with other approaches to emphasize prevention or mitigation. Cognates in other languages mirror the same basic meaning of keeping away from or steering clear of something.

See also: avoid (English); evitar (Spanish, Portuguese); evitare (Italian).