incarcérer

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin incarcerāre, incarcerō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: incarcérai, incarcéré, incarcérée, incarcérées, incarcérés, incarcérez

Verb

incarcérer

1. (transitive) to incarcerate

   Synonym: emprisonner

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

infinitive	simple	incarcérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	incarcérant /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		incarcéré /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	incarcère /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcères /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcère /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcérons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɔ̃/	incarcérez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁe/	incarcèrent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/
	imperfect	incarcérais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɛ/	incarcérais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɛ/	incarcérait /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɛ/	incarcérions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁjɔ̃/	incarcériez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁje/	incarcéraient /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	incarcérai /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁe/	incarcéras /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁa/	incarcéra /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁa/	incarcérâmes /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁam/	incarcérâtes /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁat/	incarcérèrent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɛʁ/
	future	incarcèrerai or incarcérerai /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁe/	incarcèreras or incarcéreras /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁa/	incarcèrera or incarcérera /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁa/	incarcèrerons or incarcérerons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	incarcèrerez or incarcérerez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁe/	incarcèreront or incarcéreront /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	incarcèrerais or incarcérerais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	incarcèrerais or incarcérerais /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	incarcèrerait or incarcérerait /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	incarcèrerions or incarcérerions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	incarcèreriez or incarcéreriez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁə.ʁje/	incarcèreraient or incarcéreraient /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.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	incarcère /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcères /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcère /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	incarcérions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁjɔ̃/	incarcériez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁje/	incarcèrent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/
	imperfect2	incarcérasse /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁas/	incarcérasses /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁas/	incarcérât /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁa/	incarcérassions /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	incarcérassiez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁa.sje/	incarcérassent /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	incarcère /ɛ̃.kaʁ.sɛʁ/	—	incarcérons /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.ʁɔ̃/	incarcérez /ɛ̃.kaʁ.se.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

• incarcération

Related terms

• chartre

Further reading

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