pécher

pécher

See also: pecher and pêcher

French

Etymology

From Middle French pecher, from Old French pechier, peccher, from Latin peccāre, present active infinitive of peccō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe.ʃe/

• Audio (France)

  (file)

• Homophone: pêcher

Verb

pécher

1. to sin

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

infinitive	simple	pécher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	péchant /pe.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		péché /pe.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pèche /pɛʃ/	pèches /pɛʃ/	pèche /pɛʃ/	péchons /pe.ʃɔ̃/	péchez /pe.ʃe/	pèchent /pɛʃ/
	imperfect	péchais /pe.ʃɛ/	péchais /pe.ʃɛ/	péchait /pe.ʃɛ/	péchions /pe.ʃjɔ̃/	péchiez /pe.ʃje/	péchaient /pe.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	péchai /pe.ʃe/	péchas /pe.ʃa/	pécha /pe.ʃa/	péchâmes /pe.ʃam/	péchâtes /pe.ʃat/	péchèrent /pe.ʃɛʁ/
	future	pècherai or pécherai /pɛʃ.ʁe/	pècheras or pécheras /pɛʃ.ʁa/	pèchera or péchera /pɛʃ.ʁa/	pècherons or pécherons /pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	pècherez or pécherez /pɛʃ.ʁe/	pècheront or pécheront /pɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pècherais or pécherais /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	pècherais or pécherais /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	pècherait or pécherait /pɛʃ.ʁɛ/	pècherions or pécherions /pɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pe.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	pècheriez or pécheriez /pɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /pe.ʃə.ʁje/	pècheraient or pécheraient /pɛʃ.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	pèche /pɛʃ/	pèches /pɛʃ/	pèche /pɛʃ/	péchions /pe.ʃjɔ̃/	péchiez /pe.ʃje/	pèchent /pɛʃ/
	imperfect2	péchasse /pe.ʃas/	péchasses /pe.ʃas/	péchât /pe.ʃa/	péchassions /pe.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	péchassiez /pe.ʃa.sje/	péchassent /pe.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pèche /pɛʃ/	—	péchons /pe.ʃɔ̃/	péchez /pe.ʃe/	—
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

• pécheur, pécheresse, péché

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• perche, perché
• prêche, prêché