plonger

French

Etymology

From Old French plongier, from Vulgar Latin *plumbicāre, from Latin plumbum (“lead”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plɔ̃.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

plonger

1. to dive
2. (figuratively) to plunge

   plonger dans ses souvenirs ― to take a trip down memory lane

3. (reflexive, figuratively) to immerse oneself (in something)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written plonge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of plonger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	plonger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	plongeant /plɔ̃.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		plongé /plɔ̃.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	plonge /plɔ̃ʒ/	plonges /plɔ̃ʒ/	plonge /plɔ̃ʒ/	plongeons /plɔ̃.ʒɔ̃/	plongez /plɔ̃.ʒe/	plongent /plɔ̃ʒ/
	imperfect	plongeais /plɔ̃.ʒɛ/	plongeais /plɔ̃.ʒɛ/	plongeait /plɔ̃.ʒɛ/	plongions /plɔ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	plongiez /plɔ̃.ʒje/	plongeaient /plɔ̃.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	plongeai /plɔ̃.ʒe/	plongeas /plɔ̃.ʒa/	plongea /plɔ̃.ʒa/	plongeâmes /plɔ̃.ʒam/	plongeâtes /plɔ̃.ʒat/	plongèrent /plɔ̃.ʒɛʁ/
	future	plongerai /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁe/	plongeras /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁa/	plongera /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁa/	plongerons /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/	plongerez /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁe/	plongeront /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	plongerais /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	plongerais /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	plongerait /plɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	plongerions /plɔ̃.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	plongeriez /plɔ̃.ʒə.ʁje/	plongeraient /plɔ̃ʒ.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	plonge /plɔ̃ʒ/	plonges /plɔ̃ʒ/	plonge /plɔ̃ʒ/	plongions /plɔ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	plongiez /plɔ̃.ʒje/	plongent /plɔ̃ʒ/
	imperfect2	plongeasse /plɔ̃.ʒas/	plongeasses /plɔ̃.ʒas/	plongeât /plɔ̃.ʒa/	plongeassions /plɔ̃.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	plongeassiez /plɔ̃.ʒa.sje/	plongeassent /plɔ̃.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	plonge /plɔ̃ʒ/	—	plongeons /plɔ̃.ʒɔ̃/	plongez /plɔ̃.ʒe/	—
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

• plonge
• plongée
• plongement
• plongeoir
• plongeon
• plongeur

Further reading

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