avérer

French

Etymology

From Old French averer, from Early Medieval Latin advērāre, derived from Latin vērus (“true”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ve.ʁe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

avérer

1. (transitive) to uncover, to reveal
2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to prove (to be); to transpire

   Il s’est avéré plus compliqué qu’on avait imaginé.

   It proved more complicated than we'd imagined.

   Il s’avère qu’il s’est suicidé.

   It turns out he committed suicide.

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

infinitive	simple	avérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	avérant /a.ve.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		avéré /a.ve.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	avère /a.vɛʁ/	avères /a.vɛʁ/	avère /a.vɛʁ/	avérons /a.ve.ʁɔ̃/	avérez /a.ve.ʁe/	avèrent /a.vɛʁ/
	imperfect	avérais /a.ve.ʁɛ/	avérais /a.ve.ʁɛ/	avérait /a.ve.ʁɛ/	avérions /a.ve.ʁjɔ̃/	avériez /a.ve.ʁje/	avéraient /a.ve.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	avérai /a.ve.ʁe/	avéras /a.ve.ʁa/	avéra /a.ve.ʁa/	avérâmes /a.ve.ʁam/	avérâtes /a.ve.ʁat/	avérèrent /a.ve.ʁɛʁ/
	future	avèrerai or avérerai /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁe/	avèreras or avéreras /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁa/	avèrera or avérera /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁa/	avèrerons or avérerons /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	avèrerez or avérerez /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁe/	avèreront or avéreront /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	avèrerais or avérerais /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	avèrerais or avérerais /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	avèrerait or avérerait /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁɛ/	avèrerions or avérerions /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	avèreriez or avéreriez /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /a.ve.ʁə.ʁje/	avèreraient or avéreraient /a.vɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /a.ve.ʁə.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	avère /a.vɛʁ/	avères /a.vɛʁ/	avère /a.vɛʁ/	avérions /a.ve.ʁjɔ̃/	avériez /a.ve.ʁje/	avèrent /a.vɛʁ/
	imperfect2	avérasse /a.ve.ʁas/	avérasses /a.ve.ʁas/	avérât /a.ve.ʁa/	avérassions /a.ve.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	avérassiez /a.ve.ʁa.sje/	avérassent /a.ve.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	avère /a.vɛʁ/	—	avérons /a.ve.ʁɔ̃/	avérez /a.ve.ʁe/	—
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

• avéré

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• rêvera