From Old French esperer, inherited from Latin spērāre.
espérer
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.
| infinitive | simple | espérer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | espérant /ɛs.pe.ʁɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | espéré /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (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 historic2 | 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/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁe/ |
espèreras or espéreras /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁa/ |
espèrera or espérera /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁa/ |
espèrerons or espérerons /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ |
espèrerez or espérerez /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁe/ |
espèreront or espéreront /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | espèrerais or espérerais /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerais or espérerais /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerait or espérerait /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/ |
espèrerions or espérerions /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
espèreriez or espéreriez /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /ɛs.pe.ʁə.ʁje/ |
espèreraient or espéreraient /ɛs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛs.pe.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 | espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espères /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
espérions /ɛs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/ |
espériez /ɛs.pe.ʁje/ |
espèrent /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
| imperfect2 | 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 | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | espère /ɛs.pɛʁ/ |
— | espérons /ɛs.pe.ʁɔ̃/ |
espérez /ɛs.pe.ʁe/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||