téter

See also: teter and têter

French

Etymology

From tette (“nipple”) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /te.te/
Audio: (file)
Audio (Canada): (file)

Verb

téter

to suckle (on a mother's teat)
(Quebec, informal) to brownnose

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

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	téter
present participle or gerund¹	simple	tétant /te.tɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tété /te.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tète /tɛt/	tètes /tɛt/	tète /tɛt/	tétons /te.tɔ̃/	tétez /te.te/	tètent /tɛt/
	imperfect	tétais /te.tɛ/	tétais /te.tɛ/	tétait /te.tɛ/	tétions /te.tjɔ̃/	tétiez /te.tje/	tétaient /te.tɛ/
	past historic²	tétai /te.te/	tétas /te.ta/	téta /te.ta/	tétâmes /te.tam/	tétâtes /te.tat/	tétèrent /te.tɛʁ/
	future	tèterai or téterai /tɛ.tʁe/ or /te.tʁe/	tèteras or téteras /tɛ.tʁa/ or /te.tʁa/	tètera or tétera /tɛ.tʁa/ or /te.tʁa/	tèterons or téterons /tɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /te.tʁɔ̃/	tèterez or téterez /tɛ.tʁe/ or /te.tʁe/	tèteront or téteront /tɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /te.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tèterais or téterais /tɛ.tʁɛ/ or /te.tʁɛ/	tèterais or téterais /tɛ.tʁɛ/ or /te.tʁɛ/	tèterait or téterait /tɛ.tʁɛ/ or /te.tʁɛ/	tèterions or téterions /tɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /te.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	tèteriez or téteriez /tɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /te.tə.ʁje/	tèteraient or téteraient /tɛ.tʁɛ/ or /te.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	tète /tɛt/	tètes /tɛt/	tète /tɛt/	tétions /te.tjɔ̃/	tétiez /te.tje/	tètent /tɛt/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	tétasse /te.tas/	tétasses /te.tas/	tétât /te.ta/	tétassions /te.ta.sjɔ̃/	tétassiez /te.ta.sje/	tétassent /te.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	tète /tɛt/	—	tétons /te.tɔ̃/	tétez /te.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).

Derived terms

(brownnose): (Quebec, informal) téteux