alléger

See also: alleger

French

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin alleviāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.le.ʒe/, /al.le.ʒe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

alléger

1. to lighten

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like protéger. It has both the spelling irregularities of other verbs in -ger (such as manger, where a silent 'e' is inserted before 'a' and 'o' endings (to indicate the /ʒ/ sound), and the spelling and pronunciation irregularities of other verbs in -é-er (such as céder), where the last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è').

Conjugation of alléger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	alléger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	allégeant /a.le.ʒɑ̃/ or /al.le.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		allégé /a.le.ʒe/ or /al.le.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	allège /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allèges /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allège /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allégeons /a.le.ʒɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒɔ̃/	allégez /a.le.ʒe/ or /al.le.ʒe/	allègent /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/
	imperfect	allégeais /a.le.ʒɛ/ or /al.le.ʒɛ/	allégeais /a.le.ʒɛ/ or /al.le.ʒɛ/	allégeait /a.le.ʒɛ/ or /al.le.ʒɛ/	allégions /a.le.ʒjɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒjɔ̃/	allégiez /a.le.ʒje/ or /al.le.ʒje/	allégeaient /a.le.ʒɛ/ or /al.le.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	allégeai /a.le.ʒe/ or /al.le.ʒe/	allégeas /a.le.ʒa/ or /al.le.ʒa/	allégea /a.le.ʒa/ or /al.le.ʒa/	allégeâmes /a.le.ʒam/ or /al.le.ʒam/	allégeâtes /a.le.ʒat/ or /al.le.ʒat/	allégèrent /a.le.ʒɛʁ/ or /al.le.ʒɛʁ/
	future	allégerai or allègerai /a.lɛʒ.ʁe/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁe/	allégeras or allègeras /a.lɛʒ.ʁa/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁa/	allégera or allègera /a.lɛʒ.ʁa/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁa/	allégerons or allègerons /a.lɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/	allégerez or allègerez /a.lɛʒ.ʁe/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁe/	allégeront or allègeront /a.lɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	allégerais or allègerais /a.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/	allégerais or allègerais /a.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/	allégerait or allègerait /a.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/ or /al.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/	allégerions or allègerions /a.lɛ.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.le.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /al.lɛ.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	allégeriez or allègeriez /a.lɛ.ʒə.ʁje/ or /a.le.ʒə.ʁje/ or /al.lɛ.ʒə.ʁje/ or /al.le.ʒə.ʁje/	allégeraient or allègeraient /a.lɛʒ.ʁɛ/ or /al.lɛʒ.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	allège /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allèges /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allège /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	allégions /a.le.ʒjɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒjɔ̃/	allégiez /a.le.ʒje/ or /al.le.ʒje/	allègent /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/
	imperfect2	allégeasse /a.le.ʒas/ or /al.le.ʒas/	allégeasses /a.le.ʒas/ or /al.le.ʒas/	allégeât /a.le.ʒa/ or /al.le.ʒa/	allégeassions /a.le.ʒa.sjɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	allégeassiez /a.le.ʒa.sje/ or /al.le.ʒa.sje/	allégeassent /a.le.ʒas/ or /al.le.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	allège /a.lɛʒ/ or /al.lɛʒ/	—	allégeons /a.le.ʒɔ̃/ or /al.le.ʒɔ̃/	allégez /a.le.ʒe/ or /al.le.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).

References

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

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• allègre