balayer

French

Etymology

From balai +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.lɛ.je/ ~ /ba.le.je/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

balayer

1. to sweep
2. to sweep aside, brush aside
3. (of a long skirt) To drag on the floor
4. (military) to rake (sweep with gunfire)
5. (politics) to make a clean sweep

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of balayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	balayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	balayant /ba.lɛ.jɑ̃/ or /ba.le.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		balayé /ba.lɛ.je/ or /ba.le.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	balaye or balaie /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balayes or balaies /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balaye or balaie /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balayons /ba.lɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ba.le.jɔ̃/	balayez /ba.lɛ.je/ or /ba.le.je/	balayent or balaient /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/
	imperfect	balayais /ba.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ba.le.jɛ/	balayais /ba.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ba.le.jɛ/	balayait /ba.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ba.le.jɛ/	balayions /ba.lɛj.jɔ̃/	balayiez /ba.lɛj.je/	balayaient /ba.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ba.le.jɛ/
	past historic2	balayai /ba.lɛ.je/ or /ba.le.je/	balayas /ba.lɛ.ja/ or /ba.le.ja/	balaya /ba.lɛ.ja/ or /ba.le.ja/	balayâmes /ba.lɛ.jam/ or /ba.le.jam/	balayâtes /ba.lɛ.jat/ or /ba.le.jat/	balayèrent /ba.lɛ.jɛʁ/ or /ba.le.jɛʁ/
	future	balayerai or balaierai /ba.lɛj.ʁe/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁe/ or /ba.le.ʁe/	balayeras or balaieras /ba.lɛj.ʁa/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁa/ or /ba.le.ʁa/	balayera or balaiera /ba.lɛj.ʁa/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁa/ or /ba.le.ʁa/	balayerons or balaierons /ba.lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ba.le.ʁɔ̃/	balayerez or balaierez /ba.lɛj.ʁe/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁe/ or /ba.le.ʁe/	balayeront or balaieront /ba.lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ba.le.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	balayerais or balaierais /ba.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ba.le.ʁɛ/	balayerais or balaierais /ba.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ba.le.ʁɛ/	balayerait or balaierait /ba.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ba.le.ʁɛ/	balayerions or balaierions /ba.lɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ba.le.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ba.le.ʁjɔ̃/	balayeriez or balaieriez /ba.lɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /ba.le.jə.ʁje/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁje/ or /ba.le.ʁje/	balayeraient or balaieraient /ba.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ba.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ba.le.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	balaye or balaie /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balayes or balaies /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balaye or balaie /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	balayions /ba.lɛj.jɔ̃/	balayiez /ba.lɛj.je/	balayent or balaient /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/
	imperfect2	balayasse /ba.lɛ.jas/ or /ba.le.jas/	balayasses /ba.lɛ.jas/ or /ba.le.jas/	balayât /ba.lɛ.ja/ or /ba.le.ja/	balayassions /ba.lɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /ba.le.ja.sjɔ̃/	balayassiez /ba.lɛ.ja.sje/ or /ba.le.ja.sje/	balayassent /ba.lɛ.jas/ or /ba.le.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	balaye or balaie /ba.lɛj/ or /ba.lɛ/	—	balayons /ba.lɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ba.le.jɔ̃/	balayez /ba.lɛ.je/ or /ba.le.je/	—
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

• balai
• balayable
• balayette

Further reading

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