tempérer

See also: temperer

French edit

Etymology edit

From Old French temprer; the é was added to make it more closely match the Latin spelling temperō, temperāre. This form may also be seen as a learned borrowing from the Latin word (according to the TLFi), and used in the sense of "temper", "sooth" as opposed to the sense relating to soaking or drenching (cf. the popularly evolved form tremper).

Pronunciation edit

Audio (file)

Verb edit

tempérer

to temper, to soothe, to assuage

Conjugation edit

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

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	tempérer
present participle or gerund¹	simple	tempérant /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tempéré /tɑ̃.pe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tempère /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempères /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempère /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempérons /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɔ̃/	tempérez /tɑ̃.pe.ʁe/	tempèrent /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/
	imperfect	tempérais /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɛ/	tempérais /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɛ/	tempérait /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɛ/	tempérions /tɑ̃.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	tempériez /tɑ̃.pe.ʁje/	tempéraient /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɛ/
	past historic²	tempérai /tɑ̃.pe.ʁe/	tempéras /tɑ̃.pe.ʁa/	tempéra /tɑ̃.pe.ʁa/	tempérâmes /tɑ̃.pe.ʁam/	tempérâtes /tɑ̃.pe.ʁat/	tempérèrent /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	tempèrerai or tempérerai /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	tempèreras or tempéreras /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	tempèrera or tempérera /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	tempèrerons or tempérerons /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	tempèrerez or tempérerez /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	tempèreront or tempéreront /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tempèrerais or tempérerais /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	tempèrerais or tempérerais /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	tempèrerait or tempérerait /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	tempèrerions or tempérerions /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	tempèreriez or tempéreriez /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.ʁje/	tempèreraient or tempéreraient /tɑ̃.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /tɑ̃.pe.ʁə.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	tempère /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempères /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempère /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	tempérions /tɑ̃.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	tempériez /tɑ̃.pe.ʁje/	tempèrent /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	tempérasse /tɑ̃.pe.ʁas/	tempérasses /tɑ̃.pe.ʁas/	tempérât /tɑ̃.pe.ʁa/	tempérassions /tɑ̃.pe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	tempérassiez /tɑ̃.pe.ʁa.sje/	tempérassent /tɑ̃.pe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	tempère /tɑ̃.pɛʁ/	—	tempérons /tɑ̃.pe.ʁɔ̃/	tempérez /tɑ̃.pe.ʁe/	—
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 edit

Anagrams edit

empêtrer