bêcher

See also: becher, Becher, and bécher

French

Etymology

bêche +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be.ʃe/, /bɛ.ʃe/ ~ /be.ʃe/
• Homophones: bêchai, bêché, bêchée, bêchées, bêchés, bêchez

Verb

bêcher

1. to dig (with a spade)
2. (dated) to badmouth, to slander

Conjugation

Conjugation of bêcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bêcher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bêchant /bɛ.ʃɑ̃/ or /be.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bêché /bɛ.ʃe/ or /be.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bêche /bɛʃ/	bêches /bɛʃ/	bêche /bɛʃ/	bêchons /bɛ.ʃɔ̃/ or /be.ʃɔ̃/	bêchez /bɛ.ʃe/ or /be.ʃe/	bêchent /bɛʃ/
	imperfect	bêchais /bɛ.ʃɛ/ or /be.ʃɛ/	bêchais /bɛ.ʃɛ/ or /be.ʃɛ/	bêchait /bɛ.ʃɛ/ or /be.ʃɛ/	bêchions /bɛ.ʃjɔ̃/ or /be.ʃjɔ̃/	bêchiez /bɛ.ʃje/ or /be.ʃje/	bêchaient /bɛ.ʃɛ/ or /be.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	bêchai /bɛ.ʃe/ or /be.ʃe/	bêchas /bɛ.ʃa/ or /be.ʃa/	bêcha /bɛ.ʃa/ or /be.ʃa/	bêchâmes /bɛ.ʃam/ or /be.ʃam/	bêchâtes /bɛ.ʃat/ or /be.ʃat/	bêchèrent /bɛ.ʃɛʁ/ or /be.ʃɛʁ/
	future	bêcherai /bɛʃ.ʁe/	bêcheras /bɛʃ.ʁa/	bêchera /bɛʃ.ʁa/	bêcherons /bɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	bêcherez /bɛʃ.ʁe/	bêcheront /bɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bêcherais /bɛʃ.ʁɛ/	bêcherais /bɛʃ.ʁɛ/	bêcherait /bɛʃ.ʁɛ/	bêcherions /bɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /be.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	bêcheriez /bɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /be.ʃə.ʁje/	bêcheraient /bɛʃ.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	bêche /bɛʃ/	bêches /bɛʃ/	bêche /bɛʃ/	bêchions /bɛ.ʃjɔ̃/ or /be.ʃjɔ̃/	bêchiez /bɛ.ʃje/ or /be.ʃje/	bêchent /bɛʃ/
	imperfect2	bêchasse /bɛ.ʃas/ or /be.ʃas/	bêchasses /bɛ.ʃas/ or /be.ʃas/	bêchât /bɛ.ʃa/ or /be.ʃa/	bêchassions /bɛ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ or /be.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	bêchassiez /bɛ.ʃa.sje/ or /be.ʃa.sje/	bêchassent /bɛ.ʃas/ or /be.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bêche /bɛʃ/	—	bêchons /bɛ.ʃɔ̃/ or /be.ʃɔ̃/	bêchez /bɛ.ʃe/ or /be.ʃe/	—
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).

Further reading

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