hébéter

See also: hebeter

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hebetāre.

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Verb

hébéter

to stupefy

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

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	hébéter
present participle or gerund¹	simple	hébétant /e.be.tɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		hébété /e.be.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	hébète /e.bɛt/	hébètes /e.bɛt/	hébète /e.bɛt/	hébétons /e.be.tɔ̃/	hébétez /e.be.te/	hébètent /e.bɛt/
	imperfect	hébétais /e.be.tɛ/	hébétais /e.be.tɛ/	hébétait /e.be.tɛ/	hébétions /e.be.tjɔ̃/	hébétiez /e.be.tje/	hébétaient /e.be.tɛ/
	past historic²	hébétai /e.be.te/	hébétas /e.be.ta/	hébéta /e.be.ta/	hébétâmes /e.be.tam/	hébétâtes /e.be.tat/	hébétèrent /e.be.tɛʁ/
	future	hébèterai or hébéterai /e.bɛ.tʁe/ or /e.be.tʁe/	hébèteras or hébéteras /e.bɛ.tʁa/ or /e.be.tʁa/	hébètera or hébétera /e.bɛ.tʁa/ or /e.be.tʁa/	hébèterons or hébéterons /e.bɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /e.be.tʁɔ̃/	hébèterez or hébéterez /e.bɛ.tʁe/ or /e.be.tʁe/	hébèteront or hébéteront /e.bɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /e.be.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	hébèterais or hébéterais /e.bɛ.tʁɛ/ or /e.be.tʁɛ/	hébèterais or hébéterais /e.bɛ.tʁɛ/ or /e.be.tʁɛ/	hébèterait or hébéterait /e.bɛ.tʁɛ/ or /e.be.tʁɛ/	hébèterions or hébéterions /e.bɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.be.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	hébèteriez or hébéteriez /e.bɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /e.be.tə.ʁje/	hébèteraient or hébéteraient /e.bɛ.tʁɛ/ or /e.be.tʁɛ/
(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	hébète /e.bɛt/	hébètes /e.bɛt/	hébète /e.bɛt/	hébétions /e.be.tjɔ̃/	hébétiez /e.be.tje/	hébètent /e.bɛt/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	hébétasse /e.be.tas/	hébétasses /e.be.tas/	hébétât /e.be.ta/	hébétassions /e.be.ta.sjɔ̃/	hébétassiez /e.be.ta.sje/	hébétassent /e.be.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	hébète /e.bɛt/	—	hébétons /e.be.tɔ̃/	hébétez /e.be.te/	—
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).