célébrer

See also: celebrer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin celebrāre.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /se.le.bʁe/
Audio: (file)
Homophones: célébrai, célébré, célébrée, célébrées, célébrés, célébrez

Verb

célébrer

to celebrate
Synonym: fêter
to observe (a holiday, event, etc.)
to perform, to officiate at
Seules certaines personnes sont autorisées à célébrer un mariage.
Only certain people are authorized to perform a wedding.
to worship

Usage notes

célébrer can be used with regard to events with a solemn connotation, unlike English celebrate.

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

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	célébrer
present participle or gerund¹	simple	célébrant /se.le.bʁɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		célébré /se.le.bʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	célèbre /se.lɛbʁ/	célèbres /se.lɛbʁ/	célèbre /se.lɛbʁ/	célébrons /se.le.bʁɔ̃/	célébrez /se.le.bʁe/	célèbrent /se.lɛbʁ/
	imperfect	célébrais /se.le.bʁɛ/	célébrais /se.le.bʁɛ/	célébrait /se.le.bʁɛ/	célébrions /se.le.bʁi.jɔ̃/	célébriez /se.le.bʁi.je/	célébraient /se.le.bʁɛ/
	past historic²	célébrai /se.le.bʁe/	célébras /se.le.bʁa/	célébra /se.le.bʁa/	célébrâmes /se.le.bʁam/	célébrâtes /se.le.bʁat/	célébrèrent /se.le.bʁɛʁ/
	future	célèbrerai or célébrerai /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁe/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁe/	célèbreras or célébreras /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁa/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁa/	célèbrera or célébrera /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁa/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁa/	célèbrerons or célébrerons /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/	célèbrerez or célébrerez /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁe/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁe/	célèbreront or célébreront /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	célèbrerais or célébrerais /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁɛ/	célèbrerais or célébrerais /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁɛ/	célèbrerait or célébrerait /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁɛ/	célèbrerions or célébrerions /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	célèbreriez or célébreriez /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁje/ or /se.le.bʁə.ʁje/	célèbreraient or célébreraient /se.lɛ.bʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.le.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	célèbre /se.lɛbʁ/	célèbres /se.lɛbʁ/	célèbre /se.lɛbʁ/	célébrions /se.le.bʁi.jɔ̃/	célébriez /se.le.bʁi.je/	célèbrent /se.lɛbʁ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	célébrasse /se.le.bʁas/	célébrasses /se.le.bʁas/	célébrât /se.le.bʁa/	célébrassions /se.le.bʁa.sjɔ̃/	célébrassiez /se.le.bʁa.sje/	célébrassent /se.le.bʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	célèbre /se.lɛbʁ/	—	célébrons /se.le.bʁɔ̃/	célébrez /se.le.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).