prospérer

See also: prosperer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French prosperer, from Old French prosperer, borrowed from Latin prosperāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

prospérer

1. to thrive, prosper

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

infinitive	simple	prospérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	prospérant /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		prospéré /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospères /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospérons /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɔ̃/	prospérez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/	prospèrent /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/
	imperfect	prospérais /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérais /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérait /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/	prospérions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	prospériez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁje/	prospéraient /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	prospérai /pʁɔs.pe.ʁe/	prospéras /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospéra /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospérâmes /pʁɔs.pe.ʁam/	prospérâtes /pʁɔs.pe.ʁat/	prospérèrent /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	prospèrerai or prospérerai /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	prospèreras or prospéreras /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	prospèrera or prospérera /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	prospèrerons or prospérerons /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	prospèrerez or prospérerez /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	prospèreront or prospéreront /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	prospèrerais or prospérerais /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerais or prospérerais /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerait or prospérerait /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	prospèrerions or prospérerions /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	prospèreriez or prospéreriez /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /pʁɔs.pe.ʁə.ʁje/	prospèreraient or prospéreraient /pʁɔs.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /pʁɔs.pe.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	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospères /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	prospérions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	prospériez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁje/	prospèrent /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/
	imperfect2	prospérasse /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/	prospérasses /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/	prospérât /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa/	prospérassions /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	prospérassiez /pʁɔs.pe.ʁa.sje/	prospérassent /pʁɔs.pe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	prospère /pʁɔs.pɛʁ/	—	prospérons /pʁɔs.pe.ʁɔ̃/	prospérez /pʁɔs.pe.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).

Further reading

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