régner

See also: regner

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French reignier, borrowed from Latin rēgnāre (“to govern”).

Pronunciation

Verb

régner

  1. (intransitive) to reign (of a monarch)
    régner sur un pays ― to reign over a country
  2. (intransitive, figurative) to reign (to have a powerful influence on)
    il règne dans mon cœur
    he reigns over my heart

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 régner-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written règner-, 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 régner (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive simple régner
compound avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1 simple régnant
/ʁe.ɲɑ̃/
compound ayant + past participle
past participle régné
/ʁe.ɲe/
singular plural
first second third first second third
indicative je (j’) tu il, elle, on nous vous ils, elles
(simple
tenses)		 present règne
/ʁɛɲ/		 règnes
/ʁɛɲ/		 règne
/ʁɛɲ/		 régnons
/ʁe.ɲɔ̃/		 régnez
/ʁe.ɲe/		 règnent
/ʁɛɲ/
imperfect régnais
/ʁe.ɲɛ/		 régnais
/ʁe.ɲɛ/		 régnait
/ʁe.ɲɛ/		 régnions
/ʁe.ɲjɔ̃/		 régniez
/ʁe.ɲje/		 régnaient
/ʁe.ɲɛ/
past historic2 régnai
/ʁe.ɲe/		 régnas
/ʁe.ɲa/		 régna
/ʁe.ɲa/		 régnâmes
/ʁe.ɲam/		 régnâtes
/ʁe.ɲat/		 régnèrent
/ʁe.ɲɛʁ/
future règnerai or régnerai
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁe/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁe/		 règneras or régneras
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁa/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁa/		 règnera or régnera
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁa/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁa/		 règnerons or régnerons
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/		 règnerez or régnerez
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁe/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁe/		 règneront or régneront
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/
conditional règnerais or régnerais
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁɛ/		 règnerais or régnerais
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁɛ/		 règnerait or régnerait
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁɛ/		 règnerions or régnerions
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁjɔ̃/		 règneriez or régneriez
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁje/ or /ʁe.ɲə.ʁje/		 règneraient or régneraient
/ʁɛ.ɲə.ʁɛ/ or /ʁe.ɲə.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 règne
/ʁɛɲ/		 règnes
/ʁɛɲ/		 règne
/ʁɛɲ/		 régnions
/ʁe.ɲjɔ̃/		 régniez
/ʁe.ɲje/		 règnent
/ʁɛɲ/
imperfect2 régnasse
/ʁe.ɲas/		 régnasses
/ʁe.ɲas/		 régnât
/ʁe.ɲa/		 régnassions
/ʁe.ɲa.sjɔ̃/		 régnassiez
/ʁe.ɲa.sje/		 régnassent
/ʁe.ɲas/
(compound
tenses)		 past present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
pluperfect2 imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative – tu – nous vous –
simple — règne
/ʁɛɲ/		 — régnons
/ʁe.ɲɔ̃/		 régnez
/ʁe.ɲe/		 —
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
  1. “régner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.