commercer

French

Etymology

From commerce +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mɛʁ.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

commercer

1. (intransitive) to trade

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of commercer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	commercer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	commerçant /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		commercé /kɔ.mɛʁ.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	commerce /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commerces /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commerce /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commerçons /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɔ̃/	commercez /kɔ.mɛʁ.se/	commercent /kɔ.mɛʁs/
	imperfect	commerçais /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɛ/	commerçais /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɛ/	commerçait /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɛ/	commercions /kɔ.mɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	commerciez /kɔ.mɛʁ.sje/	commerçaient /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɛ/
	past historic2	commerçai /kɔ.mɛʁ.se/	commerças /kɔ.mɛʁ.sa/	commerça /kɔ.mɛʁ.sa/	commerçâmes /kɔ.mɛʁ.sam/	commerçâtes /kɔ.mɛʁ.sat/	commercèrent /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɛʁ/
	future	commercerai /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	commerceras /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	commercera /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	commercerons /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/	commercerez /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	commerceront /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	commercerais /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	commercerais /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	commercerait /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	commercerions /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	commerceriez /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.ʁje/	commerceraient /kɔ.mɛʁ.sə.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	commerce /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commerces /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commerce /kɔ.mɛʁs/	commercions /kɔ.mɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	commerciez /kɔ.mɛʁ.sje/	commercent /kɔ.mɛʁs/
	imperfect2	commerçasse /kɔ.mɛʁ.sas/	commerçasses /kɔ.mɛʁ.sas/	commerçât /kɔ.mɛʁ.sa/	commerçassions /kɔ.mɛʁ.sa.sjɔ̃/	commerçassiez /kɔ.mɛʁ.sa.sje/	commerçassent /kɔ.mɛʁ.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	commerce /kɔ.mɛʁs/	—	commerçons /kɔ.mɛʁ.sɔ̃/	commercez /kɔ.mɛʁ.se/	—
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

• commerçable
• commerçant

Further reading

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