léguer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin legare.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /leɡe/

Verb

léguer

1. to will, to bequeath
2. to hand down, pass on (traditions etc.)

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 léguer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written lèguer-, 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 léguer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		léguer			avoir légué
gerund		en léguant			Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle
present participle		léguant
past participle		légué
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	lègue	lègues	lègue	léguons	léguez	lèguent
	imperfect	léguais	léguais	léguait	léguions	léguiez	léguaient
	past historic1	léguai	léguas	légua	léguâmes	léguâtes	léguèrent
	future	lèguerai or léguerai	lègueras or légueras	lèguera or léguera	lèguerons or léguerons	lèguerez or léguerez	lègueront or légueront
	conditional	lèguerais or léguerais	lèguerais or léguerais	lèguerait or léguerait	lèguerions or léguerions	lègueriez or légueriez	lègueraient or légueraient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	lègue	lègues	lègue	léguions	léguiez	lèguent
	imperfect1	léguasse	léguasses	léguât	léguassions	léguassiez	léguassent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	lègue	—	léguons	léguez	—
1literary tenses

Anagrams

• régule, régulé