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Definition 2024
espérer
espérer
See also: esperer
French
Verb
espérer
- (intransitive) to hope
- J’espère réussir. ― I hope to succeed.
- J’espère qu’il viendra bientôt. ― I hope he will come soon.
- (transitive) to hope for
- J’espère un succès rapide. ― I hope for quick success
- (intransitive) to have faith, to trust (with en (“in”))
- Il faut espérer. ― You must have faith.
- Il faut espérer en Dieu. ― You must trust in God.
Conjugation
This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written ‘é’) and /ɛ/ (written ‘è’), with the latter being used before mute ‘e’. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written espérer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written espèrer-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.
Conjugation of espérer (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| simple | compound | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | espérer | avoir espéré | |||||
| gerund | en espérant | en ayant espéré | |||||
| present participle | espérant /ɛs.pe.ʁɑ̃/ |
||||||
| past participle | espéré /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ |
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| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il | nous | vous | ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espères /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espérons /ɛs.pe.ʁɔ̃/ |
espérez /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ |
espèrent /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
| imperfect | espérais /ɛs.pe.ʁɛ/ |
espérais /ɛs.pe.ʁɛ/ |
espérait /ɛs.pe.ʁɛ/ |
espérions /ɛs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/ |
espériez /ɛs.pe.ʁje/ |
espéraient /ɛs.pe.ʁɛ/ |
|
| past historic1 | espérai /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ |
espéras /ɛs.pe.ʁa/ |
espéra /ɛs.pe.ʁa/ |
espérâmes /ɛs.pe.ʁam/ |
espérâtes /ɛs.pe.ʁat/ |
espérèrent /ɛs.pe.ʁɛʁ/ |
|
| future | espèrerai or espérerai /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ |
espèreras or espéreras /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ |
espèrera or espérera /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ |
espèrerons or espérerons /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ |
espèrerez or espérerez /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ |
espèreront or espéreront /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ |
|
| conditional | espèrerais or espérerais /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerais or espérerais /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerait or espérerait /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerions or espérerions /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
espèreriez or espéreriez /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ |
espèreraient or espéreraient /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
|
| compound tenses |
present perfect | Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| past anterior1 | Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il | que nous | que vous | qu’ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espères /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espérions /ɛs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/ |
espériez /ɛs.pe.ʁje/ |
espèrent /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
| imperfect1 |
espérasse /ɛs.pe.ʁas/ |
espérasses /ɛs.pe.ʁas/ |
espérât /ɛs.pe.ʁa/ |
espérassions /ɛs.pe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ |
espérassiez /ɛs.pe.ʁa.sje/ |
espérassent /ɛs.pe.ʁas/ |
|
| compound tenses |
past | Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect1 | Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | tu | – | nous | vous | – | |
| — | espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
— | espérons /ɛs.pe.ʁɔ̃/ |
espérez /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ |
— | ||
| 1literary tenses | |||||||