Rechigner Conjugation: All Tenses of the French Verb “rechigner”
Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed August 2026
Rechigner means to drag your feet over something: to do it grudgingly, or to resist doing it at all. It is a regular -er verb, and it is almost always followed by à plus an infinitive — rechigner à faire quelque chose.
Rechigner describes an attitude rather than an action. It is what an employee does when asked to work Saturday, what a child does at bedtime, what a company does when asked to pay. It is not rare, but it belongs to careful speech and to written French: journalists use it constantly about governments and companies that are reluctant to act. The most useful thing to take away is not the conjugation, which is entirely predictable, but the pattern it locks into.
Rechigner is a first-group verb with no stem change and no accent shifts: je rechigne, tu rechignes, il rechigne, nous rechignons, vous rechignez, ils rechignent. The gn is a single sound throughout, so nothing in the spelling moves. The imparfait is je rechignais, the future je rechignerai, the subjunctive que je rechigne, and the participle rechigné with avoir. The one thing to memorise is the construction: rechigner à faire quelque chose, or rechigner devant plus a noun. There is no direct object — you cannot rechigner something.
Rechigner in context
Présent
Il rechigne à faire la vaisselle mais il la fait quand même. He grumbles about doing the dishes, but he does them anyway.
Imparfait
Enfant, je rechignais à aller à l'école le lundi matin. As a child, I hated having to go to school on Monday mornings.
Passé composé
Ils ont rechigné à payer leur part de l'addition. They made a fuss about paying their share of the bill.
Futur simple
Elle rechignera à signer avant d'avoir tout relu. She'll be reluctant to sign before she has read everything again.
Subjonctif présent
Bien que tu rechignes à l'admettre, il avait raison. Even though you're reluctant to admit it, he was right.
Common mistakes with rechigner
Using de instead of à
✗ Il rechigne de travailler le samedi.
✓ Il rechigne à travailler le samedi. — He's reluctant to work on Saturdays.
Most French verbs that introduce an infinitive use de (refuser de, éviter de), so learners generalise. Rechigner takes à, like hésiter à and renoncer à. If a noun follows instead of a verb, use devant: rechigner devant l'effort.
Giving rechigner a direct object
✗ Elle rechigne ce travail depuis lundi.
✓ Elle rechigne à faire ce travail depuis lundi. — She's been dragging her feet on this job since Monday.
Rechigner is intransitive: it names your attitude, not a thing you act on. To bring in the task, either turn it into an infinitive with à faire, or use devant plus the noun. To reject the task outright, the verb you want is refuser, which does take a direct object.
Adding an accent to the first e
✗ Il réchigne à venir avec nous.
✓ Il rechigne à venir avec nous. — He's reluctant to come with us.
The first syllable is the unstressed re- prefix, pronounced like the re of retenir, so it carries no accent — rechigner, je rechigne, nous rechignons. An é there would force a different vowel sound that no speaker uses in this word.
Expressions with rechigner
sans rechigner
without complaining, without a murmur
rechigner à la tâche
to shirk the work
rechigner devant l'effort
to balk at the effort
Frequently asked questions
Is rechigner a regular verb?
Yes, completely. It follows the first-group model with a stable stem: je rechigne, nous rechignons, j'ai rechigné, je rechignerai, que je rechigne. There are no accent changes and no softening rules, since gn already represents a single sound. All the difficulty of this verb sits in its construction, not its endings.
Which preposition follows rechigner?
À before an infinitive: rechigner à payer, rechigner à reconnaître ses erreurs. Devant before a noun: rechigner devant la dépense. It is never followed by de, and it never takes a direct object. The pattern rechigner à faire quelque chose covers the great majority of real uses.
What does sans rechigner mean?
It means “without complaining” or “without a murmur”, and it is the most common form you will encounter: il a payé sans rechigner, elle fait les corvées sans rechigner. The phrase is fixed, uses the infinitive, and is a compliment — it says someone did an unpleasant thing with no fuss.
What is the difference between rechigner and refuser?
Refuser is a decision: you say no. Rechigner is an attitude on the way to doing it anyway — you protest, you delay, you make your reluctance visible. That is why rechigner so often appears with mais: il rechigne à le faire, mais il le fera. Renâcler is a close synonym, slightly more colloquial.
How do you pronounce rechigner?
Roughly “ruh-shee-NYAY”. The first e is the weak vowel of le, the ch is like the sh in “shoe”, and gn is the ny sound in “canyon”. In the present tense je rechigne, the final -e is silent, so the word ends on that ny sound: “ruh-SHEE-ny”.