vanter

Vanter is a French verb meaning to praise, extol, or vaunt. It is used to commend the merits of a person, object, or idea, often in promotional, rhetorical, or laudatory contexts. Common expressions include vanter les mérites de quelqu’un or vanter les mérites d’un produit, often implying deliberate praise or advocacy.

The verb is regular in its conjugation and belongs to the first conjugation. Typical forms include je vante, tu vante, il vante; nous vantons, vous vantez, ils vantent. The past participle is vanté, used with auxiliary être or avoir in compound tenses depending on the construction. In everyday French, vanter is common in formal or literary style, though more casual speakers might choose alternatives such as faire l’éloge de or présenter les qualités de.

In English, vanter is considered archaic or extremely rare, and the closest common meaning is given by the verb vaunt, which also means to boast or praise. The two terms are historically related as cognates, sharing a root in the broader development of Romance and Germanic languages. The pronunciation in French is typically [vɑ̃t e], with a nasalized first syllable, and it appears in both narrative and argumentative writing to attribute or assert positive qualities.