Stem-Changing Verbs -e_er -é_er -yer

Verbes à deux radicaux

There doesn’t seem to be an official name for them in French,* but in English, verbs with two different stems or radicals in the present tense may be called stem-changing verbs, shoe verbs, or boot verbs. The last two names come from the fact that a line drawn around the stem-changed, present tense conjugations creates a shoe or boot.**

Stem-changing verbs take the same conjugation endings as regular -er verbs, but have two different verb stems depending on the grammatical person the verb is conjugated for: the first and second person plural use the same stem as the infinitive, while all of the singular conjugations as well as the third person plural have slightly different stem. Though there are different types of stem-changed verbs, the grammatical persons and tenses affected are the same for all of them, so once you learn the patterns, you can conjugate any stem-changing verb.

There are fewer than 100 stem-changing verbs, all recognizable by the last four letters of the infinitive. They fall into seven conjugation groups which can be reduced to three patterns.

1. Accent grave verbs

All verbs that end in –é_er change the é to è in the stem-changed conjugations:***

• altérer – to alter
• céder – to give up, dispose of
• célébrer – to celebrate
• compléter – to complete
• considérer – to consider
• différer – to differ
• espérer – to hope
• exagérer – to exaggerate
• gérer – to manage
• inquiéter – to worry
• modérer – to moderate
• pénétrer – to enter
• posséder – to possess
• préférer – to prefer
• protéger – to protect (note that protéger is also a spelling change verb)
• refléter – to reflect
• répéter – to repeat
• révéler – to reveal
• suggérer – to suggest
• zébrer – to stripe

Most verbs that end in –e_er change the e muet (the penultimate e) to è:

• acheter – to buy
• amener – to take
• ciseler – to chisel, carve
• corseter – to constrain, constrict
• crocheter – to crochet, to pick (a lock)
• démanteler – to dismantle, demolish
• écarteler – to tear apart
• emmener – to take
• enlever – to remove
• fileter – to thread
• fureter – to rummage, nose about
• geler – to freeze
• haleter – to pant
• harceler – to harass
• lever – to lift, raise
• marteler – to hammer, pound
• mener – to lead
• modeler – to model, shape
• peler – to peel
• peser – to weigh
• promener – to walk

  A few verbs that end in –eler and –eter undergo a different stem change:

2. Doubled consonant verbs

Instead of following the above pattern, the following French verbs that end in –eler and –eter double the l or t in the stem-changed conjugations.

• appeler – to call
• chanceler – to totter, wobble
• épeler – to spell
• rappeler – to call back, recall
• renouveler – to renew
• ruisseler – to flow, stream
   
• feuilleter – to leaf through
• hoqueter – to hiccup
• jeter – to throw
• projeter – to project
• rejeter – to reject

3. Y to I verbs

Verbs that end in –ayer, –oyer, or –uyer stem-change the Y to an I.

For –oyer and –uyer verbs, the stem change is required.

• broyer – to grind
• employer – to employ
• envoyer – to send
• nettoyer – to clean
• se noyer – to drown
• renvoyer – to fire
• tutoyer – to use tu
• vouvoyer – to use vous
   
• appuyer – to lean, press
• ennuyer – to bore
• essuyer – to wipe

For –ayer verbs, the stem change is optional: both je paie and je paye are correct.

• balayer – to sweep
• effrayer – to frighten
• égayer – to cheer up
• essayer – to try
• payer – to pay
• rayer – to draw a line (on/through), to cross out

Quiz: Stem-changing verbs

 À noter

* Le Bon Usage discusses these supposedly "regular" verbs in a section called Observations sur le radical, b) Verbes en -er : faits aussi phonétique (as opposed to faits purement graphiques).

** The conjugations with stem changes vary by verb tense and mood:

1. In the present tense, subjunctive, and imperative, the stem change occurs in all conjugations except nous and vous.
2. In the future and conditional, the stem change occurs in all conjugations.***
3. However, in the imperfect, present participle, past participle, passé simple, and imperfect subjunctive, there is no stem change.

Confused? You can see how all of these stem changes and non-stem changes look in the verb conjugation tables – click any of the verbs above.

*** For é_er verbs, the stem change is optional in the future and conditional: both conjugations are equally correct.

 Related lessons

• Present tense
• Regular -er verbs
• Irregular -er verbs
• Spelling change verbs
• Introduction to verbs
• Accents
   

 En español

• Verbos con cambio radical
   

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