libérer
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin līberāre, present active infinitive of līberō (“to set free”). Doublet of livrer, which was inherited. Unrelated to French délibérer.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /li.be.ʁe/
audio (file)
Verb
libérer
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 libérer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written libèrer-, 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.
| present participle | libérant /li.be.ʁɑ̃/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past participle | libéré /li.be.ʁe/ | ||||||
| infinitive | |||||||
| simple | libérer | ||||||
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| gerund1 | |||||||
| simple | libérant /li.be.ʁɑ̃/ | ||||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | libère /li.bɛʁ/ |
libères /li.bɛʁ/ |
libère /li.bɛʁ/ |
libérons /li.be.ʁɔ̃/ |
libérez /li.be.ʁe/ |
libèrent /li.bɛʁ/ |
| imperfect | libérais /li.be.ʁɛ/ |
libérais /li.be.ʁɛ/ |
libérait /li.be.ʁɛ/ |
libérions /li.be.ʁjɔ̃/ |
libériez /li.be.ʁje/ |
libéraient /li.be.ʁɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | libérai /li.be.ʁe/ |
libéras /li.be.ʁa/ |
libéra /li.be.ʁa/ |
libérâmes /li.be.ʁam/ |
libérâtes /li.be.ʁat/ |
libérèrent /li.be.ʁɛʁ/ | |
| future | libèrerai or libérerai /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ |
libèreras or libéreras /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ |
libèrera or libérera /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ |
libèrerons or libérerons /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ |
libèrerez or libérerez /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ |
libèreront or libéreront /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | libèrerais or libérerais /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
libèrerais or libérerais /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
libèrerait or libérerait /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
libèrerions or libérerions /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
libèreriez or libéreriez /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ |
libèreraient or libéreraient /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | libère /li.bɛʁ/ |
libères /li.bɛʁ/ |
libère /li.bɛʁ/ |
libérions /li.be.ʁjɔ̃/ |
libériez /li.be.ʁje/ |
libèrent /li.bɛʁ/ |
| imperfect2 | libérasse /li.be.ʁas/ |
libérasses /li.be.ʁas/ |
libérât /li.be.ʁa/ |
libérassions /li.be.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ |
libérassiez /li.be.ʁa.sje/ |
libérassent /li.be.ʁas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | libère /li.bɛʁ/ |
— | libérons /li.be.ʁɔ̃/ |
libérez /li.be.ʁe/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 Only usable with preposition en. | |||||||
| 2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
See also
Further reading
- “libérer” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).