posséder
French
Etymology
From an alteration of an older Middle French possider, from Latin possidēre, present active infinitive of possideō. Compare also the Old French forms porseoir, porseir, porsoier.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pɔ.se.de/
Audio (file)
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 posséder-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written possèder-, 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 | possédant /pɔ.se.dɑ̃/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past participle | possédé /pɔ.se.de/ | ||||||
| infinitive | |||||||
| simple | posséder | ||||||
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| gerund1 | |||||||
| simple | possédant /pɔ.se.dɑ̃/ | ||||||
| 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 | possède /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possèdes /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possède /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possédons /pɔ.se.dɔ̃/ |
possédez /pɔ.se.de/ |
possèdent /pɔ.sɛd/ |
| imperfect | possédais /pɔ.se.dɛ/ |
possédais /pɔ.se.dɛ/ |
possédait /pɔ.se.dɛ/ |
possédions /pɔ.se.djɔ̃/ |
possédiez /pɔ.se.dje/ |
possédaient /pɔ.se.dɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | possédai /pɔ.se.de/ |
possédas /pɔ.se.da/ |
posséda /pɔ.se.da/ |
possédâmes /pɔ.se.dam/ |
possédâtes /pɔ.se.dat/ |
possédèrent /pɔ.se.dɛʁ/ | |
| future | possèderai or posséderai /pɔ.sɛ.dʁe/ |
possèderas or posséderas /pɔ.sɛ.dʁa/ |
possèdera or possédera /pɔ.sɛ.dʁa/ |
possèderons or posséderons /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɔ̃/ |
possèderez or posséderez /pɔ.sɛ.dʁe/ |
possèderont or posséderont /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | possèderais or posséderais /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɛ/ |
possèderais or posséderais /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɛ/ |
possèderait or posséderait /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɛ/ |
possèderions or posséderions /pɔ.sɛ.də.ʁjɔ̃/ |
possèderiez or posséderiez /pɔ.sɛ.də.ʁje/ |
possèderaient or posséderaient /pɔ.sɛ.dʁɛ/ | |
| (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 | possède /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possèdes /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possède /pɔ.sɛd/ |
possédions /pɔ.se.djɔ̃/ |
possédiez /pɔ.se.dje/ |
possèdent /pɔ.sɛd/ |
| imperfect2 | possédasse /pɔ.se.das/ |
possédasses /pɔ.se.das/ |
possédât /pɔ.se.da/ |
possédassions /pɔ.se.da.sjɔ̃/ |
possédassiez /pɔ.se.da.sje/ |
possédassent /pɔ.se.das/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | possède /pɔ.sɛd/ |
— | possédons /pɔ.se.dɔ̃/ |
possédez /pɔ.se.de/ |
— | |
| 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). | |||||||
Derived terms
Further reading
- “posséder” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).