boulanger

See also: Boulanger

French

Etymology

From Middle French boulanger, from Old French boulanger, bolengier (“baker”), from Old Picard boulenc (“bun-maker, bread-maker”), of Germanic origin, from Low Frankish *bolla (“bun”), from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ, *bullô (“ball, bowl, round object”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to inflate, swell”) + -enc (“-ing”), from Frankish *-ing (“-ing”), from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz (“-ing”). Cognate with Old High German bolla (“fine wheat flour”), Middle Dutch bolle (“bun, round bread”), Middle High German bolle (“bud, spherical vessel”), Danish bolle (“bun, bread”), Old English bolle, bolla (“bowl, cup, pot, measure”). More at bowl, -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.lɑ̃.ʒe/

• audio:

  (file)

Noun

boulanger m (plural boulangers, feminine boulangère)

1. baker

Derived terms

• boulangerie

Verb

boulanger

1. (rare) to prepare and bake bread

Conjugation

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

infinitive	simple	boulanger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	boulangeant /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		boulangé /bu.lɑ̃.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	boulange /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulanges /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulange /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulangeons /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɔ̃/	boulangez /bu.lɑ̃.ʒe/	boulangent /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/
	imperfect	boulangeais /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɛ/	boulangeais /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɛ/	boulangeait /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɛ/	boulangions /bu.lɑ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	boulangiez /bu.lɑ̃.ʒje/	boulangeaient /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	boulangeai /bu.lɑ̃.ʒe/	boulangeas /bu.lɑ̃.ʒa/	boulangea /bu.lɑ̃.ʒa/	boulangeâmes /bu.lɑ̃.ʒam/	boulangeâtes /bu.lɑ̃.ʒat/	boulangèrent /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɛʁ/
	future	boulangerai /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁe/	boulangeras /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁa/	boulangera /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁa/	boulangerons /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/	boulangerez /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁe/	boulangeront /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	boulangerais /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	boulangerais /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	boulangerait /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	boulangerions /bu.lɑ̃.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	boulangeriez /bu.lɑ̃.ʒə.ʁje/	boulangeraient /bu.lɑ̃ʒ.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	boulange /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulanges /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulange /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	boulangions /bu.lɑ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	boulangiez /bu.lɑ̃.ʒje/	boulangent /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/
	imperfect2	boulangeasse /bu.lɑ̃.ʒas/	boulangeasses /bu.lɑ̃.ʒas/	boulangeât /bu.lɑ̃.ʒa/	boulangeassions /bu.lɑ̃.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	boulangeassiez /bu.lɑ̃.ʒa.sje/	boulangeassent /bu.lɑ̃.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	boulange /bu.lɑ̃ʒ/	—	boulangeons /bu.lɑ̃.ʒɔ̃/	boulangez /bu.lɑ̃.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

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