reléguer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin relēgāre (“send away; banish”), from re- (“back, away”) + lēgō (“send, dispatch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.le.ɡe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

reléguer

1. to relegate

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

infinitive	simple	reléguer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	reléguant /ʁə.le.ɡɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		relégué /ʁə.le.ɡe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	relègue /ʁə.lɛɡ/	relègues /ʁə.lɛɡ/	relègue /ʁə.lɛɡ/	reléguons /ʁə.le.ɡɔ̃/	reléguez /ʁə.le.ɡe/	relèguent /ʁə.lɛɡ/
	imperfect	reléguais /ʁə.le.ɡɛ/	reléguais /ʁə.le.ɡɛ/	reléguait /ʁə.le.ɡɛ/	reléguions /ʁə.le.ɡjɔ̃/	reléguiez /ʁə.le.ɡje/	reléguaient /ʁə.le.ɡɛ/
	past historic2	reléguai /ʁə.le.ɡe/	reléguas /ʁə.le.ɡa/	relégua /ʁə.le.ɡa/	reléguâmes /ʁə.le.ɡam/	reléguâtes /ʁə.le.ɡat/	reléguèrent /ʁə.le.ɡɛʁ/
	future	relèguerai or reléguerai /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁe/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁe/	relègueras or relégueras /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁa/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁa/	relèguera or reléguera /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁa/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁa/	relèguerons or reléguerons /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɔ̃/	relèguerez or reléguerez /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁe/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁe/	relègueront or relégueront /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɔ̃/
	conditional	relèguerais or reléguerais /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɛ/	relèguerais or reléguerais /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɛ/	relèguerait or reléguerait /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɛ/	relèguerions or reléguerions /ʁə.lɛ.ɡə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ɡə.ʁjɔ̃/	relègueriez or relégueriez /ʁə.lɛ.ɡə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.le.ɡə.ʁje/	relègueraient or relégueraient /ʁə.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ɡʁɛ/
(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	relègue /ʁə.lɛɡ/	relègues /ʁə.lɛɡ/	relègue /ʁə.lɛɡ/	reléguions /ʁə.le.ɡjɔ̃/	reléguiez /ʁə.le.ɡje/	relèguent /ʁə.lɛɡ/
	imperfect2	reléguasse /ʁə.le.ɡas/	reléguasses /ʁə.le.ɡas/	reléguât /ʁə.le.ɡa/	reléguassions /ʁə.le.ɡa.sjɔ̃/	reléguassiez /ʁə.le.ɡa.sje/	reléguassent /ʁə.le.ɡas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	relègue /ʁə.lɛɡ/	—	reléguons /ʁə.le.ɡɔ̃/	reléguez /ʁə.le.ɡe/	—
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

• déléguer
• léguer
• relégué
• relégation

Further reading

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