soulager

French

Etymology

Alteration of Old French suslegier (probably under the influence of solacier (“to solace”) and soulas) from Vulgar Latin *subleviāre, from Latin sublevāre (“to lift up, to raise; to lighten”), from sub- (“from under”) + levō (“to raise, to lift up”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.la.ʒe/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

soulager

1. (transitive) to relieve, soothe
   • (Can we date this quote?) Charles Baudelaire, Le Crépuscule du Soir

     C’est le soir qui soulage / Les esprits.

     It’s the evening which soothes the spirits.

2. (reflexive) to make oneself feel better, to find relief
3. (reflexive, colloquial) to relieve oneself

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written soulage- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of soulager (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	soulager
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	soulageant /su.la.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		soulagé /su.la.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulages /su.laʒ/	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulageons /su.la.ʒɔ̃/	soulagez /su.la.ʒe/	soulagent /su.laʒ/
	imperfect	soulageais /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulageais /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulageait /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulagions /su.la.ʒjɔ̃/	soulagiez /su.la.ʒje/	soulageaient /su.la.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	soulageai /su.la.ʒe/	soulageas /su.la.ʒa/	soulagea /su.la.ʒa/	soulageâmes /su.la.ʒam/	soulageâtes /su.la.ʒat/	soulagèrent /su.la.ʒɛʁ/
	future	soulagerai /su.laʒ.ʁe/	soulageras /su.laʒ.ʁa/	soulagera /su.laʒ.ʁa/	soulagerons /su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/	soulagerez /su.laʒ.ʁe/	soulageront /su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	soulagerais /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerais /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerait /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerions /su.la.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	soulageriez /su.la.ʒə.ʁje/	soulageraient /su.laʒ.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	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulages /su.laʒ/	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulagions /su.la.ʒjɔ̃/	soulagiez /su.la.ʒje/	soulagent /su.laʒ/
	imperfect2	soulageasse /su.la.ʒas/	soulageasses /su.la.ʒas/	soulageât /su.la.ʒa/	soulageassions /su.la.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	soulageassiez /su.la.ʒa.sje/	soulageassent /su.la.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	soulage /su.laʒ/	—	soulageons /su.la.ʒɔ̃/	soulagez /su.la.ʒe/	—
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).

Derived terms

• soulagement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• logueras