Inherited from Middle French pecher, from Old French pechier, from Latin peccāre.
pécher
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 pécher-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written pècher-, 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 | pécher | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | péchant /pe.ʃɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | péché /pe.ʃe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | pèche /pɛʃ/ |
pèches /pɛʃ/ |
pèche /pɛʃ/ |
péchons /pe.ʃɔ̃/ |
péchez /pe.ʃe/ |
pèchent /pɛʃ/ |
| imperfect | péchais /pe.ʃɛ/ |
péchais /pe.ʃɛ/ |
péchait /pe.ʃɛ/ |
péchions /pe.ʃjɔ̃/ |
péchiez /pe.ʃje/ |
péchaient /pe.ʃɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | péchai /pe.ʃe/ |
péchas /pe.ʃa/ |
pécha /pe.ʃa/ |
péchâmes /pe.ʃam/ |
péchâtes /pe.ʃat/ |
péchèrent /pe.ʃɛʁ/ | |
| future | pècherai or pécherai /pɛʃ.ʁe/ |
pècheras or pécheras /pɛʃ.ʁa/ |
pèchera or péchera /pɛʃ.ʁa/ |
pècherons or pécherons /pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/ |
pècherez or pécherez /pɛʃ.ʁe/ |
pècheront or pécheront /pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | pècherais or pécherais /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/ |
pècherais or pécherais /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/ |
pècherait or pécherait /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/ |
pècherions or pécherions /pɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pe.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
pècheriez or pécheriez /pɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /pe.ʃə.ʁje/ |
pècheraient or pécheraient /pɛʃ.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 | pèche /pɛʃ/ |
pèches /pɛʃ/ |
pèche /pɛʃ/ |
péchions /pe.ʃjɔ̃/ |
péchiez /pe.ʃje/ |
pèchent /pɛʃ/ |
| imperfect2 | péchasse /pe.ʃas/ |
péchasses /pe.ʃas/ |
péchât /pe.ʃa/ |
péchassions /pe.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ |
péchassiez /pe.ʃa.sje/ |
péchassent /pe.ʃas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | pèche /pɛʃ/ |
— | péchons /pe.ʃɔ̃/ |
péchez /pe.ʃe/ |
— | |
| 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). | |||||||