refléter

French

refléter

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fle.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

refléter

1. to reflect (to mirror, or show the image of something)

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

infinitive	simple	refléter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	reflétant /ʁə.fle.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		reflété /ʁə.fle.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	reflète /ʁə.flɛt/	reflètes /ʁə.flɛt/	reflète /ʁə.flɛt/	reflétons /ʁə.fle.tɔ̃/	reflétez /ʁə.fle.te/	reflètent /ʁə.flɛt/
	imperfect	reflétais /ʁə.fle.tɛ/	reflétais /ʁə.fle.tɛ/	reflétait /ʁə.fle.tɛ/	reflétions /ʁə.fle.tjɔ̃/	reflétiez /ʁə.fle.tje/	reflétaient /ʁə.fle.tɛ/
	past historic2	reflétai /ʁə.fle.te/	reflétas /ʁə.fle.ta/	refléta /ʁə.fle.ta/	reflétâmes /ʁə.fle.tam/	reflétâtes /ʁə.fle.tat/	reflétèrent /ʁə.fle.tɛʁ/
	future	reflèterai or refléterai /ʁə.flɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁe/	reflèteras or refléteras /ʁə.flɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁa/	reflètera or reflétera /ʁə.flɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁa/	reflèterons or refléterons /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁɔ̃/	reflèterez or refléterez /ʁə.flɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁe/	reflèteront or refléteront /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	reflèterais or refléterais /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁɛ/	reflèterais or refléterais /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁɛ/	reflèterait or refléterait /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.fle.tʁɛ/	reflèterions or refléterions /ʁə.flɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.fle.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	reflèteriez or refléteriez /ʁə.flɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.fle.tə.ʁje/	reflèteraient or refléteraient /ʁə.flɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁə.fle.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	reflète /ʁə.flɛt/	reflètes /ʁə.flɛt/	reflète /ʁə.flɛt/	reflétions /ʁə.fle.tjɔ̃/	reflétiez /ʁə.fle.tje/	reflètent /ʁə.flɛt/
	imperfect2	reflétasse /ʁə.fle.tas/	reflétasses /ʁə.fle.tas/	reflétât /ʁə.fle.ta/	reflétassions /ʁə.fle.ta.sjɔ̃/	reflétassiez /ʁə.fle.ta.sje/	reflétassent /ʁə.fle.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	reflète /ʁə.flɛt/	—	reflétons /ʁə.fle.tɔ̃/	reflétez /ʁə.fle.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).

Further reading

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