bouger

French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *bullicāre, frequentative of Latin bullīre. Compare Occitan bolegar, Catalan bullegar/bellugar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.ʒe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

bouger

1. to move

Conjugation

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

infinitive	simple	bouger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bougeant /bu.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bougé /bu.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bouge /buʒ/	bouges /buʒ/	bouge /buʒ/	bougeons /bu.ʒɔ̃/	bougez /bu.ʒe/	bougent /buʒ/
	imperfect	bougeais /bu.ʒɛ/	bougeais /bu.ʒɛ/	bougeait /bu.ʒɛ/	bougions /bu.ʒjɔ̃/	bougiez /bu.ʒje/	bougeaient /bu.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	bougeai /bu.ʒe/	bougeas /bu.ʒa/	bougea /bu.ʒa/	bougeâmes /bu.ʒam/	bougeâtes /bu.ʒat/	bougèrent /bu.ʒɛʁ/
	future	bougerai /buʒ.ʁe/	bougeras /buʒ.ʁa/	bougera /buʒ.ʁa/	bougerons /buʒ.ʁɔ̃/	bougerez /buʒ.ʁe/	bougeront /buʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bougerais /buʒ.ʁɛ/	bougerais /buʒ.ʁɛ/	bougerait /buʒ.ʁɛ/	bougerions /bu.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	bougeriez /bu.ʒə.ʁje/	bougeraient /buʒ.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	bouge /buʒ/	bouges /buʒ/	bouge /buʒ/	bougions /bu.ʒjɔ̃/	bougiez /bu.ʒje/	bougent /buʒ/
	imperfect2	bougeasse /bu.ʒas/	bougeasses /bu.ʒas/	bougeât /bu.ʒa/	bougeassions /bu.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	bougeassiez /bu.ʒa.sje/	bougeassent /bu.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bouge /buʒ/	—	bougeons /bu.ʒɔ̃/	bougez /bu.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).

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• bougre