alléguer

See also: alleguer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin allēgāre (“despatch”).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

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Verb

alléguer

1. to put forward (as a proof, or as an excuse), to argue, proffer as an argument
2. to allege
3. to cite, quote

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

infinitive	simple	alléguer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	alléguant /a.le.ɡɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		allégué /a.le.ɡe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	allègue /a.lɛɡ/	allègues /a.lɛɡ/	allègue /a.lɛɡ/	alléguons /a.le.ɡɔ̃/	alléguez /a.le.ɡe/	allèguent /a.lɛɡ/
	imperfect	alléguais /a.le.ɡɛ/	alléguais /a.le.ɡɛ/	alléguait /a.le.ɡɛ/	alléguions /a.le.ɡjɔ̃/	alléguiez /a.le.ɡje/	alléguaient /a.le.ɡɛ/
	past historic2	alléguai /a.le.ɡe/	alléguas /a.le.ɡa/	allégua /a.le.ɡa/	alléguâmes /a.le.ɡam/	alléguâtes /a.le.ɡat/	alléguèrent /a.le.ɡɛʁ/
	future	allèguerai or alléguerai /a.lɛ.ɡʁe/ or /a.le.ɡʁe/	allègueras or allégueras /a.lɛ.ɡʁa/ or /a.le.ɡʁa/	allèguera or alléguera /a.lɛ.ɡʁa/ or /a.le.ɡʁa/	allèguerons or alléguerons /a.lɛ.ɡʁɔ̃/ or /a.le.ɡʁɔ̃/	allèguerez or alléguerez /a.lɛ.ɡʁe/ or /a.le.ɡʁe/	allègueront or allégueront /a.lɛ.ɡʁɔ̃/ or /a.le.ɡʁɔ̃/
	conditional	allèguerais or alléguerais /a.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /a.le.ɡʁɛ/	allèguerais or alléguerais /a.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /a.le.ɡʁɛ/	allèguerait or alléguerait /a.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /a.le.ɡʁɛ/	allèguerions or alléguerions /a.lɛ.ɡə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.le.ɡə.ʁjɔ̃/	allègueriez or allégueriez /a.lɛ.ɡə.ʁje/ or /a.le.ɡə.ʁje/	allègueraient or allégueraient /a.lɛ.ɡʁɛ/ or /a.le.ɡʁɛ/
(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	allègue /a.lɛɡ/	allègues /a.lɛɡ/	allègue /a.lɛɡ/	alléguions /a.le.ɡjɔ̃/	alléguiez /a.le.ɡje/	allèguent /a.lɛɡ/
	imperfect2	alléguasse /a.le.ɡas/	alléguasses /a.le.ɡas/	alléguât /a.le.ɡa/	alléguassions /a.le.ɡa.sjɔ̃/	alléguassiez /a.le.ɡa.sje/	alléguassent /a.le.ɡas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	allègue /a.lɛɡ/	—	alléguons /a.le.ɡɔ̃/	alléguez /a.le.ɡe/	—
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

• allégateur
• allégation

Further reading

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