espérer

From Old French esperer, inherited from Latin spērāre.

• IPA^(key): /ɛs.pe.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

espérer

1. (intransitive) to hope

   J’espère réussir. ― I hope to succeed.

   J’espère qu’il viendra bientôt. ― I hope he will come soon.

2. (transitive) to hope for

   J’espère un succès rapide. ― I hope for quick success

3. (intransitive) to have faith, to trust (with en (“in”))

   Il faut espérer. ― You must have faith.

   Il faut espérer en Dieu. ― You must trust in God.

4. (North America, Normandy) to wait

   Synonyms: attendre, patienter

   Espere-voir un bout. ― Please wait a bit.

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.

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

• repères