ébrécher

French

Etymology

From Middle French ebrecher, from Old French esbrechier. By surface analysis, é- +‎ brèche +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.bʁe.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

ébrécher

1. to chip; to dent

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

infinitive	simple	ébrécher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ébréchant /e.bʁe.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ébréché /e.bʁe.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ébrèche /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébrèches /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébrèche /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébréchons /e.bʁe.ʃɔ̃/	ébréchez /e.bʁe.ʃe/	ébrèchent /e.bʁɛʃ/
	imperfect	ébréchais /e.bʁe.ʃɛ/	ébréchais /e.bʁe.ʃɛ/	ébréchait /e.bʁe.ʃɛ/	ébréchions /e.bʁe.ʃjɔ̃/	ébréchiez /e.bʁe.ʃje/	ébréchaient /e.bʁe.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	ébréchai /e.bʁe.ʃe/	ébréchas /e.bʁe.ʃa/	ébrécha /e.bʁe.ʃa/	ébréchâmes /e.bʁe.ʃam/	ébréchâtes /e.bʁe.ʃat/	ébréchèrent /e.bʁe.ʃɛʁ/
	future	ébrècherai or ébrécherai /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁe/	ébrècheras or ébrécheras /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁa/	ébrèchera or ébréchera /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁa/	ébrècherons or ébrécherons /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	ébrècherez or ébrécherez /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁe/	ébrècheront or ébrécheront /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ébrècherais or ébrécherais /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁɛ/	ébrècherais or ébrécherais /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁɛ/	ébrècherait or ébrécherait /e.bʁɛʃ.ʁɛ/	ébrècherions or ébrécherions /e.bʁɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.bʁe.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	ébrècheriez or ébrécheriez /e.bʁɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /e.bʁe.ʃə.ʁje/	ébrècheraient or ébrécheraient /e.bʁɛʃ.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	ébrèche /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébrèches /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébrèche /e.bʁɛʃ/	ébréchions /e.bʁe.ʃjɔ̃/	ébréchiez /e.bʁe.ʃje/	ébrèchent /e.bʁɛʃ/
	imperfect2	ébréchasse /e.bʁe.ʃas/	ébréchasses /e.bʁe.ʃas/	ébréchât /e.bʁe.ʃa/	ébréchassions /e.bʁe.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	ébréchassiez /e.bʁe.ʃa.sje/	ébréchassent /e.bʁe.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ébrèche /e.bʁɛʃ/	—	ébréchons /e.bʁe.ʃɔ̃/	ébréchez /e.bʁe.ʃe/	—
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).

Further reading

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