espérer

See also: esperer

French

Etymology

From Old French esperer, inherited from Latin spērāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛs.pe.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

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.

Conjugation

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.

Conjugation of espérer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

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		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• espérance
• espoir

 

Further reading

• “espérer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• repères