différer

See also: differer

French

Etymology

From Latin differō (“differ”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.fe.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

différer

1. to differ
2. to defer
   • 2024 July 8, François Tonneau, quoting Marine Le Pen, “L'Assemblée nationale à fronts renversés”, in La Provence, page 2:

     “Notre victoire n’est que différée”, veut croire Marine Le Pen, qui a durci son cuir après deux présidentielles perdues contre Emmanuel Macron.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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

infinitive	simple	différer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	différant /di.fe.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		différé /di.fe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	diffère /di.fɛʁ/	diffères /di.fɛʁ/	diffère /di.fɛʁ/	différons /di.fe.ʁɔ̃/	différez /di.fe.ʁe/	diffèrent /di.fɛʁ/
	imperfect	différais /di.fe.ʁɛ/	différais /di.fe.ʁɛ/	différait /di.fe.ʁɛ/	différions /di.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	différiez /di.fe.ʁje/	différaient /di.fe.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	différai /di.fe.ʁe/	différas /di.fe.ʁa/	différa /di.fe.ʁa/	différâmes /di.fe.ʁam/	différâtes /di.fe.ʁat/	différèrent /di.fe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	diffèrerai or différerai /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	diffèreras or différeras /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	diffèrera or différera /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	diffèrerons or différerons /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	diffèrerez or différerez /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	diffèreront or différeront /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	diffèrerais or différerais /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	diffèrerais or différerais /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	diffèrerait or différerait /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	diffèrerions or différerions /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	diffèreriez or différeriez /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /di.fe.ʁə.ʁje/	diffèreraient or différeraient /di.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /di.fe.ʁə.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	diffère /di.fɛʁ/	diffères /di.fɛʁ/	diffère /di.fɛʁ/	différions /di.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	différiez /di.fe.ʁje/	diffèrent /di.fɛʁ/
	imperfect2	différasse /di.fe.ʁas/	différasses /di.fe.ʁas/	différât /di.fe.ʁa/	différassions /di.fe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	différassiez /di.fe.ʁa.sje/	différassent /di.fe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	diffère /di.fɛʁ/	—	différons /di.fe.ʁɔ̃/	différez /di.fe.ʁe/	—
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).

Derived terms

• différance

Further reading

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