différer

From Latin differō (“differ”).

• IPA^(key): /di.fe.ʁe/

• Audio:

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différer

1. to differ
2. to defer
   • 2024 July 8, François Tonneau, quoting Marine Le Pen, “L'Assemblée nationale à fronts renversés”, in La Provence, page 2:

     “Notre victoire n’est que différée”, veut croire Marine Le Pen, qui a durci son cuir après deux présidentielles perdues contre Emmanuel Macron.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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 différer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written diffèrer-, 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.

• différance

• “différer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.