prospérer

See also: prosperer

French

Etymology

From Middle French prosperer, from Old French prosperer, from Latin prosperāre, present active infinitive of prosperō.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/
Audio (file)

Verb

prospérer

to thrive, prosper

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 prospérer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written prospèrer-, 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 prospérer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive
present participle		prospérant /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɑ̃/
past participle		prospéré /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/
simple		prospérer
compound		avoir + past participle
gerund¹
simple		prospérant /pʁɔs.pe.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	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospères /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospérons /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɔ̃/	prospérez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/	prospèrent /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/
	imperfect	prospérais /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérais /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérait /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	prospériez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁje/	prospéraient /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/
	past historic²	prospérai /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/	prospéras /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospéra /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospérâmes /pʁɔs.pe.ʁam/	prospérâtes /pʁɔs.pe.ʁat/	prospérèrent /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	prospèrerai or prospérerai /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/	prospèreras or prospéreras /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/	prospèrera or prospérera /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/	prospèrerons or prospérerons /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	prospèrerez or prospérerez /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/	prospèreront or prospéreront /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	prospèrerais or prospérerais /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerais or prospérerais /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerait or prospérerait /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerions or prospérerions /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	prospèreriez or prospéreriez /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/	prospèreraient or prospéreraient /pʁɔs.pɛ.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	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospères /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospérions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	prospériez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁje/	prospèrent /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	prospérasse /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/	prospérasses /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/	prospérât /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospérassions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	prospérassiez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa.sje/	prospérassent /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	—	prospérons /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɔ̃/	prospérez /pʁɔs.pe.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).