hypothéquer

From hypothèque +‎ -er.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /i.pɔ.te.ke/

• Audio:

  (file)

hypothéquer

1. (transitive) to hypothecate
2. (transitive) to mortgage
3. (transitive, figurative) to weaken or compromise, especially in view of immediate gain

   Son train de vie a beaucoup hypothéqué sa santé.

   His lifestyle has badly compromised his health.

   En favorisant les industries extractives, nous hypothéquons le bien-être de la planète pour des gains à court terme.

   By promoting extractive industries, we put the planet's well-being in jeopardy for short-term profits.

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

• hypothécaire

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