soulager

French

Etymology

Alteration of Old French suslegier (probably under the influence of solacier (“to solace”) and soulas) from Vulgar Latin *subleviāre, from Latin sublevāre (“to lift up, to raise; to lighten”), from sub- (“from under”) + levō (“to raise, to lift up”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.la.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

soulager

1. (transitive) to relieve, soothe
   • (Can we date this quote?) Charles Baudelaire, Le Crépuscule du Soir

     C’est le soir qui soulage / Les esprits.

     It’s the evening which soothes the spirits.

2. (reflexive) to make oneself feel better, to find relief
3. (reflexive, colloquial) to relieve oneself

   Excusez-moi, je vais me soulager. Je reviens tout de suite.

   Excuse me, I'm going to go relieve myself. I'll be right back.

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written soulage- 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 soulager (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	soulager
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	soulageant /su.la.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		soulagé /su.la.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulages /su.laʒ/	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulageons /su.la.ʒɔ̃/	soulagez /su.la.ʒe/	soulagent /su.laʒ/
	imperfect	soulageais /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulageais /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulageait /su.la.ʒɛ/	soulagions /su.la.ʒjɔ̃/	soulagiez /su.la.ʒje/	soulageaient /su.la.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	soulageai /su.la.ʒe/	soulageas /su.la.ʒa/	soulagea /su.la.ʒa/	soulageâmes /su.la.ʒam/	soulageâtes /su.la.ʒat/	soulagèrent /su.la.ʒɛʁ/
	future	soulagerai /su.laʒ.ʁe/	soulageras /su.laʒ.ʁa/	soulagera /su.laʒ.ʁa/	soulagerons /su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/	soulagerez /su.laʒ.ʁe/	soulageront /su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	soulagerais /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerais /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerait /su.laʒ.ʁɛ/	soulagerions /su.la.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	soulageriez /su.la.ʒə.ʁje/	soulageraient /su.laʒ.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	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulages /su.laʒ/	soulage /su.laʒ/	soulagions /su.la.ʒjɔ̃/	soulagiez /su.la.ʒje/	soulagent /su.laʒ/
	imperfect2	soulageasse /su.la.ʒas/	soulageasses /su.la.ʒas/	soulageât /su.la.ʒa/	soulageassions /su.la.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	soulageassiez /su.la.ʒa.sje/	soulageassent /su.la.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	soulage /su.laʒ/	—	soulageons /su.la.ʒɔ̃/	soulagez /su.la.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: 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).

Derived terms

• soulagement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• logueras