encourager

English

Alternative forms

• incourager (archaic)

Etymology

encourage +‎ -er

Noun

encourager (plural encouragers)

1. One who provides encouragement.

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French

Etymology

From Old French encoragier. Synchronically analysable as en- +‎ courage +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

encourager

1. (transitive) to encourage

   Antonym: décourager

   • 1759, Voltaire, Candide‎^[1], page 160:

     Mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un Amiral pour encourager les autres.

     But in this country it is good to kill an Admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

   Elle m’encourage à toujours faire de mon mieux.

   She encourages me to always do my best.

2. (reflexive pronominal) to motivate oneself

   Antonym: se décourager

3. (reciprocal pronominal) to encourage each other

   Ils se sont encouragés les uns les autres à faire de leur mieux.

   They encouraged each other to do their best.

4. (transitive) to promote

Conjugation

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

infinitive	simple	encourager
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	encourageant /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		encouragé /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/	encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/	encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/
	imperfect	encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encourageait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/	encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/	encourageaient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	encourageai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/	encourageas /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encouragea /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encourageâmes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒam/	encourageâtes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒat/	encouragèrent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛʁ/
	future	encouragerai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/	encourageras /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/	encouragera /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/	encouragerons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/	encouragerez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/	encourageront /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	encourageriez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁje/	encourageraient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.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	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/	encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/	encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/
	imperfect2	encourageasse /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/	encourageasses /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/	encourageât /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encourageassions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	encourageassiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sje/	encourageassent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	—	encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/	encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.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).

Related terms

• encouragement

Descendants

• → Romanian: încuraja

Further reading

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