encourager
English
Alternative forms
- incourager (archaic)
Etymology
encourage + -er
Noun
encourager (plural encouragers)
- One who provides encouragement.
French
Etymology
From Old French encoragier. Synchronically analysable as en- + courage + -er.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/
audio (file)
Verb
encourager
- (transitive) to encourage
- Antonym: décourager
- 1759, Voltaire, Candide, page 160:
- Mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un Amiral pour encourager les autres.
- But in this country it is good to kill an Admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
- Elle m'encourage à toujours faire de mon mieux.
- She encourages me to always do my best.
- (reflexive pronominal) to motivate oneself
- Antonym: se décourager
- (reciprocal pronominal) to encourage each other
- Ils se sont encouragés les uns les autres à faire de leur mieux.
- They encouraged each other to do their best.
- (transitive) to promote
Conjugation
This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written encourage- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.
Conjugation of encourager (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | encourager | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | encourageant /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | encouragé /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/ | encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/ | encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ |
| imperfect | encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/ | encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/ | encourageait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/ | encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/ | encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/ | encourageaient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | encourageai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/ | encourageas /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/ | encouragea /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/ | encourageâmes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒam/ | encourageâtes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒat/ | encouragèrent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛʁ/ | |
| future | encouragerai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/ | encourageras /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/ | encouragera /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/ | encouragerons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/ | encouragerez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/ | encourageront /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/ | encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/ | encouragerait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/ | encouragerions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ | encourageriez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁje/ | encourageraient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.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 | encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/ | encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/ | encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ |
| imperfect2 | encourageasse /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/ | encourageasses /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/ | encourageât /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/ | encourageassions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sjɔ̃/ | encourageassiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sje/ | encourageassent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/ | — | encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/ | encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
- encouragement
Descendants
- → Romanian: încuraja
Further reading
- “encourager”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.