Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to spy
Participle: spied
Gerund: spying
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | spy |
| you | spy |
| he;she;it | spies |
| we | spy |
| you | spy |
| they | spy |
Perfect
| I | have spied |
| you | have spied |
| he;she;it | has spied |
| we | have spied |
| you | have spied |
| they | have spied |
Past
| I | spied |
| you | spied |
| he;she;it | spied |
| we | spied |
| you | spied |
| they | spied |
Pluperfect
| I | had spied |
| you | had spied |
| he;she;it | had spied |
| we | had spied |
| you | had spied |
| they | had spied |
Future
| I | will spy |
| you | will spy |
| he;she;it | will spy |
| we | will spy |
| you | will spy |
| they | will spy |
Future Perfect
| I | will have spied |
| you | will have spied |
| he;she;it | will have spied |
| we | will have spied |
| you | will have spied |
| they | will have spied |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | spy |
| you | spy |
| he;she;it | spy |
| we | spy |
| you | spy |
| they | spy |
Perfect
| I | have spied |
| you | have spied |
| he;she;it | have spied |
| we | have spied |
| you | have spied |
| they | have spied |
Imperfect
| I | spied |
| you | spied |
| he;she;it | spied |
| we | spied |
| you | spied |
| they | spied |
Pluperfect
| I | had spied |
| you | had spied |
| he;she;it | had spied |
| we | had spied |
| you | had spied |
| they | had spied |
Conditional
Present
| I | would spy |
| you | would spy |
| he;she;it | would spy |
| we | would spy |
| you | would spy |
| they | would spy |
Perfect
| I | would have spied |
| you | would have spied |
| he;she;it | would have spied |
| we | would have spied |
| you | would have spied |
| they | would have spied |
Imperative
| you | spy |
| we | Let's spy |
| you | spy |
Verbs conjugated like 'spy'
accompany,
acetify,
acidify,
adsignify,
affy,
alacrify,
alkalify,
ally,
amnesty,
amplify,
angelify,
anglicify,
anglify,
apology,
apply,
arefy,
argufy,
astony,
atrophy,
avowtry, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'spy'
espy,
say,
shy,
sny,
spay,
sty,
apay,
ape,
apt,
bay,
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. From Middle English spien, aphetic variant of earlier espien (“to espy”), from Old French espier (“to spy”), from Frankish *spehōn (“to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to see, look”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Akin to German spähen (“to spy”), Dutch spieden (“to spy”).
2. The noun displaced native Old English sċēawere (literally “watcher”), which was also the word for "mirror." In this sense, the verb displaced Old English sċēawian, which was also the word for "to watch" and became the Modern English word show.
3. Distant cognate vie PIE with Latin speculātor, Ancient Greek κατάσκοπος (katáskopos).
4. Compare typologically Russian согляда́тай (sogljadátaj) (akin to гляде́ть (gljadétʹ)). See: Old French '
espier', Proto-Germanic '
*spehōną', German, old spelling '
spähen', Dutch '
spieden', Latin '
speculātor'.
Verbs referencing "spy"
Albanian
shoh, Danish
spå.
Sample Sentences
-
[...] is, that I cannot be plagued with this child, any longer ! It's past all bearing; flesh and blood cannot endure it ! Here, I locked her up, and gave her a hymn to study; and what does she do, but spy out where I put my key, and has gone to my bureau, and got a bonnet-trimming, and cut it all to pieces to make dolls ’ jackets ! I never saw anything like it, in my life ! ”
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
for months, and now the new girl is spying on me ? Is this your handwriting ?
(Tacoma)