libérer

See also liberer

French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin līberō. Cognate with livrer.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /li.be.re/

Verb

libérer

1. To liberate, to set free, to release from captivity.
2. To vacate, to move out of (e.g. a house)

Related terms

• libération
• liberté
• libre
• librement

See also

• dégager

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

		simple			compound
infinitive		libérer			avoir or être libéré
gerund		en libérant			Use the gerund of avoir or être followed by the past participle
present participle		libérant
past participle		libéré
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	libère	libères	libère	libérons	libérez	libèrent
	imperfect	libérais	libérais	libérait	libérions	libériez	libéraient
	past historic1	libérai	libéras	libéra	libérâmes	libérâtes	libérèrent
	future	libèrerai or libérerai	libèreras or libéreras	libèrera or libérera	libèrerons or libérerons	libèrerez or libérerez	libèreront or libéreront
	conditional	libèrerais or libérerais	libèrerais or libérerais	libèrerait or libérerait	libèrerions or libérerions	libèreriez or libéreriez	libèreraient or libéreraient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir or être followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	libère	libères	libère	libérions	libériez	libèrent
	imperfect1	libérasse	libérasses	libérât	libérassions	libérassiez	libérassent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir or être followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir or être followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	libère	—	libérons	libérez	—
1literary tenses