conférer

French

Etymology

From Latin cōnferō.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.fe.ʁe/
Audio: (file)

Verb

conférer

to confer

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

infinitive	compound	avoir past participle
infinitive	simple	conférer
present participle or gerund¹	simple	conférant /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		conféré /kɔ̃.fe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	confère /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	confères /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	confère /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	conférons /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɔ̃/	conférez /kɔ̃.fe.ʁe/	confèrent /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/
	imperfect	conférais /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɛ/	conférais /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɛ/	conférait /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɛ/	conférions /kɔ̃.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	confériez /kɔ̃.fe.ʁje/	conféraient /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɛ/
	past historic²	conférai /kɔ̃.fe.ʁe/	conféras /kɔ̃.fe.ʁa/	conféra /kɔ̃.fe.ʁa/	conférâmes /kɔ̃.fe.ʁam/	conférâtes /kɔ̃.fe.ʁat/	conférèrent /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	confèrerai or conférerai /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	confèreras or conféreras /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	confèrera or conférera /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁa/	confèrerons or conférerons /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	confèrerez or conférerez /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁe/	confèreront or conféreront /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	confèrerais or conférerais /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	confèrerais or conférerais /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	confèrerait or conférerait /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	confèrerions or conférerions /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	confèreriez or conféreriez /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /kɔ̃.fe.ʁə.ʁje/	confèreraient or conféreraient /kɔ̃.fɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.fe.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	confère /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	confères /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	confère /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	conférions /kɔ̃.fe.ʁjɔ̃/	confériez /kɔ̃.fe.ʁje/	confèrent /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	conférasse /kɔ̃.fe.ʁas/	conférasses /kɔ̃.fe.ʁas/	conférât /kɔ̃.fe.ʁa/	conférassions /kɔ̃.fe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	conférassiez /kɔ̃.fe.ʁa.sje/	conférassent /kɔ̃.fe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	confère /kɔ̃.fɛʁ/	—	conférons /kɔ̃.fe.ʁɔ̃/	conférez /kɔ̃.fe.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).

Related terms

conférence

Anagrams

confrère, forcener, renforce, renforcé