surveiller
French, verb/syʁ.vɛ.je/
surveiller is spelled S-U-R-V-E-I-L-L-E-R (10 letters) and appears 15 times per million words in written French, the 4,746th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Surveiller is a French verb meaning “to monitor, to survey, to watch” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Observer avec attention ; examiner ; contrôler”.
What does surveiller mean in English?
verb
- 1
to monitor, to survey, to watch
surveiller comme le lait sur le feu
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Observer avec attention ; examiner ; contrôler. 2. Veiller particulièrement et avec autorité sur quelque chose. On disait surtout surveiller à.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of surveiller
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- surveillant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- surveillé participle past
- surveille first-person indicative present
- surveilles indicative present second-person
- surveillons first-person indicative plural
- surveillez indicative plural present
- surveillent indicative plural present
- surveillais first-person imperfect indicative
- surveillait imperfect indicative singular
- surveillions first-person imperfect indicative
- surveilliez imperfect indicative plural
- surveillaient imperfect indicative plural
- surveillai first-person historic indicative
- surveillas historic indicative past
- surveilla historic indicative past
- surveillâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce surveiller?
- /syʁ.vɛ.je/
- /syʁ.ve.je/
- \syʁ.vɛ.je\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to surveiller
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is surveiller in French?
surveiller appears 15 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).