rouspéter

French

Etymology

Probably formed from rousser (as with rouscailler) + péter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁus.pe.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

rouspéter

1. to grumble

   Synonyms: gronder, disputer

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

infinitive	simple	rouspéter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rouspétant /ʁus.pe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		rouspété /ʁus.pe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	rouspète /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspètes /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspète /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspétons /ʁus.pe.tɔ̃/	rouspétez /ʁus.pe.te/	rouspètent /ʁus.pɛt/
	imperfect	rouspétais /ʁus.pe.tɛ/	rouspétais /ʁus.pe.tɛ/	rouspétait /ʁus.pe.tɛ/	rouspétions /ʁus.pe.tjɔ̃/	rouspétiez /ʁus.pe.tje/	rouspétaient /ʁus.pe.tɛ/
	past historic2	rouspétai /ʁus.pe.te/	rouspétas /ʁus.pe.ta/	rouspéta /ʁus.pe.ta/	rouspétâmes /ʁus.pe.tam/	rouspétâtes /ʁus.pe.tat/	rouspétèrent /ʁus.pe.tɛʁ/
	future	rouspèterai or rouspéterai /ʁus.pɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁe/	rouspèteras or rouspéteras /ʁus.pɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁa/	rouspètera or rouspétera /ʁus.pɛ.tʁa/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁa/	rouspèterons or rouspéterons /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɔ̃/	rouspèterez or rouspéterez /ʁus.pɛ.tʁe/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁe/	rouspèteront or rouspéteront /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rouspèterais or rouspéterais /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɛ/	rouspèterais or rouspéterais /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɛ/	rouspèterait or rouspéterait /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɛ/	rouspèterions or rouspéterions /ʁus.pɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁus.pe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	rouspèteriez or rouspéteriez /ʁus.pɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /ʁus.pe.tə.ʁje/	rouspèteraient or rouspéteraient /ʁus.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /ʁus.pe.tʁɛ/
(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	rouspète /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspètes /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspète /ʁus.pɛt/	rouspétions /ʁus.pe.tjɔ̃/	rouspétiez /ʁus.pe.tje/	rouspètent /ʁus.pɛt/
	imperfect2	rouspétasse /ʁus.pe.tas/	rouspétasses /ʁus.pe.tas/	rouspétât /ʁus.pe.ta/	rouspétassions /ʁus.pe.ta.sjɔ̃/	rouspétassiez /ʁus.pe.ta.sje/	rouspétassent /ʁus.pe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	rouspète /ʁus.pɛt/	—	rouspétons /ʁus.pe.tɔ̃/	rouspétez /ʁus.pe.te/	—
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

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