zébrer

French

Etymology

From zèbre (“zebra”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ze.bʁe/
Audio: (file)

Verb

zébrer

to stripe, to stripe like a zebra

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

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	zébrer
present participle or gerund¹	simple	zébrant /ze.bʁɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		zébré /ze.bʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	zèbre /zɛbʁ/	zèbres /zɛbʁ/	zèbre /zɛbʁ/	zébrons /ze.bʁɔ̃/	zébrez /ze.bʁe/	zèbrent /zɛbʁ/
	imperfect	zébrais /ze.bʁɛ/	zébrais /ze.bʁɛ/	zébrait /ze.bʁɛ/	zébrions /ze.bʁi.jɔ̃/	zébriez /ze.bʁi.je/	zébraient /ze.bʁɛ/
	past historic²	zébrai /ze.bʁe/	zébras /ze.bʁa/	zébra /ze.bʁa/	zébrâmes /ze.bʁam/	zébrâtes /ze.bʁat/	zébrèrent /ze.bʁɛʁ/
	future	zèbrerai or zébrerai /zɛ.bʁə.ʁe/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁe/	zèbreras or zébreras /zɛ.bʁə.ʁa/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁa/	zèbrera or zébrera /zɛ.bʁə.ʁa/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁa/	zèbrerons or zébrerons /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/	zèbrerez or zébrerez /zɛ.bʁə.ʁe/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁe/	zèbreront or zébreront /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	zèbrerais or zébrerais /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁɛ/	zèbrerais or zébrerais /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁɛ/	zèbrerait or zébrerait /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁɛ/	zèbrerions or zébrerions /zɛ.bʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	zèbreriez or zébreriez /zɛ.bʁə.ʁje/ or /ze.bʁə.ʁje/	zèbreraient or zébreraient /zɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ze.bʁə.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	zèbre /zɛbʁ/	zèbres /zɛbʁ/	zèbre /zɛbʁ/	zébrions /ze.bʁi.jɔ̃/	zébriez /ze.bʁi.je/	zèbrent /zɛbʁ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	zébrasse /ze.bʁas/	zébrasses /ze.bʁas/	zébrât /ze.bʁa/	zébrassions /ze.bʁa.sjɔ̃/	zébrassiez /ze.bʁa.sje/	zébrassent /ze.bʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	zèbre /zɛbʁ/	—	zébrons /ze.bʁɔ̃/	zébrez /ze.bʁe/	—
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).