persévérer

See also: perseverer

French

Etymology

From Old French perseverer, borrowed from Latin persevērāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

persévérer

1. to persevere

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

infinitive	simple	persévérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	persévérant /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		persévéré /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	persévère /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévères /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévère /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévérons /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɔ̃/	persévérez /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁe/	persévèrent /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/
	imperfect	persévérais /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɛ/	persévérais /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɛ/	persévérait /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɛ/	persévérions /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁjɔ̃/	persévériez /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁje/	persévéraient /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	persévérai /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁe/	persévéras /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁa/	persévéra /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁa/	persévérâmes /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁam/	persévérâtes /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁat/	persévérèrent /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɛʁ/
	future	persévèrerai or persévérerai /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁe/	persévèreras or persévéreras /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁa/	persévèrera or persévérera /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁa/	persévèrerons or persévérerons /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	persévèrerez or persévérerez /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁe/	persévèreront or persévéreront /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	persévèrerais or persévérerais /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	persévèrerais or persévérerais /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	persévèrerait or persévérerait /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	persévèrerions or persévérerions /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	persévèreriez or persévéreriez /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁə.ʁje/	persévèreraient or persévéreraient /pɛʁ.se.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pɛʁ.se.ve.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	persévère /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévères /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévère /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	persévérions /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁjɔ̃/	persévériez /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁje/	persévèrent /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/
	imperfect2	persévérasse /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁas/	persévérasses /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁas/	persévérât /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁa/	persévérassions /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	persévérassiez /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁa.sje/	persévérassent /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	persévère /pɛʁ.se.vɛʁ/	—	persévérons /pɛʁ.se.ve.ʁɔ̃/	persévérez /pɛʁ.se.ve.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).

Descendants

• → Romanian: persevera

References

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