Monday, November 25, 2019

How to Conjugate French Spelling-Change Verbs

How to Conjugate French Spelling-Change Verbs There are two groups of otherwise regular -er verbs that have spelling changes in certain conjugations due to hard and soft consonants and vowels. That is, they are conjugated like regular -er verbs, except for slight spelling variations in certain conjugations in order to maintain soft consonant sounds throughout. They are known as are spelling-change verbs. The Consequences of Orthography These orthographic changes occur because of how hard and soft letters affect pronunciation. The letters  Ã‚  a,  o, and  u  are sometimes called  hard vowels  while  e  and  i  are  soft vowels.  Certain consonants (c,  g,  s) change pronunciation according to which vowel follows them. Place the soft vowels e or i after them, and they have a soft sound; place the sometimes hard vowels a, o and u after these consonants and you could get a hard-sounding consonant.   The spelling-change verbs follow these rules of orthography. Thus, wherever the  g  in -ger verbs is followed by a hard vowel like o, it changes to ge  to keep the g soft, as in gel. In  -cer  verbs, wherever the  c is followed by a hard vowel, it  changes to à § to keep the c soft, as in  cell.   The Actual Changes: -cer Verbs Generally, for -cer  verbs, the  Ã‚  c à § spelling change is found only in the imperative and the  nous  conjugation of the present tense:  lanà §ons.  It is also needed in the  present participle,  lanà §ant, but not the  past participle,  lancà ©. All verbs that end in -cer undergo this spelling change, including:   Ã‚  Ã‚  annoncer   to announce  Ã‚  Ã‚  avancer  Ã‚  to advance  Ã‚  Ã‚  commencer  Ã‚  to begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  dà ©noncer  Ã‚  to denounce  Ã‚  Ã‚  divorcer  Ã‚  to divorce  Ã‚  Ã‚  effacer  Ã‚  to erase  Ã‚  Ã‚  lancer  Ã‚  to throw  Ã‚  Ã‚  menacer  Ã‚  to threaten  Ã‚  Ã‚  placer  Ã‚  to put  Ã‚  Ã‚  prononcer  Ã‚  to pronounce  Ã‚  Ã‚  remplace  Ã‚  to replace  Ã‚  Ã‚  renoncer  Ã‚  to renounce The Actual Changes: -ger Verbs For -ger  verbs,  the  g ge spelling change is likewise found only in the imperative and the present tense  nous  conjugation:  mangeons.  It is needed in the  present participle,  mangeant, but not the  past participle,  mangà ©. All verbs that end in -ger undergo this spelling change, including:   Ã‚  Ã‚  arranger  Ã‚  to arrange  Ã‚  Ã‚  bouger  Ã‚  to move  Ã‚  Ã‚  changer  Ã‚  to change  Ã‚  Ã‚  corriger  Ã‚  to correct  Ã‚  Ã‚  dà ©courager  Ã‚  to discourage  Ã‚  Ã‚  dà ©mà ©nager  Ã‚  to move  Ã‚  Ã‚  dà ©ranger  Ã‚  to disturb  Ã‚  Ã‚  diriger  Ã‚  to direct  Ã‚  Ã‚  encourager  Ã‚  to encourage  Ã‚  Ã‚  engager  Ã‚  to bind  Ã‚  Ã‚  exiger  Ã‚  to demand  Ã‚  Ã‚  juger  Ã‚  to judge  Ã‚  Ã‚  loger  Ã‚  to lodge  Ã‚  Ã‚  manger  Ã‚  to eat  Ã‚  Ã‚  mà ©langer  Ã‚  to mix  Ã‚  Ã‚  nager  Ã‚  to swim  Ã‚  Ã‚  obliger  Ã‚  to oblige  Ã‚  Ã‚  partager  Ã‚  to share  Ã‚  Ã‚  rà ©diger  Ã‚  to write  Ã‚  Ã‚  voyager  Ã‚  to travel For both types of spelling-change verbs, these slight changes also occur in the following tenses and moods: Imperfect  - singular conjugations plus the third person pluralPassà © simple  - all conjugations except the third person pluralImperfect subjunctive  - all conjugations For both, there is no spelling change in the  conditional,  future, or  subjunctive. See the Full Conjugations to Understand Check out the full conjugations of spelling-change   -ger  verbs  and  -cer  verbs  for a global picture of how these small changes affect spelling. One caveat: Do not confuse spelling-change verbs with  stem-changing verbs. They are completely different, as their names indicate.

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