encourager

English

Etymology

encourage +‎ -er

Noun

encourager (plural encouragers)

1. One who provides encouragement.

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French

Etymology

From Old French encoragier. Synchronically analysable as en- +‎ courage +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

encourager

1. to encourage

Conjugation

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

infinitive	simple	encourager
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	encourageant /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		encouragé /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/	encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/	encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/
	imperfect	encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encourageais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encourageait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/	encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/	encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/	encourageaient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	encourageai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe/	encourageas /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encouragea /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encourageâmes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒam/	encourageâtes /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒat/	encouragèrent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛʁ/
	future	encouragerai /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/	encourageras /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/	encouragera /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁa/	encouragerons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/	encouragerez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁe/	encourageront /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerais /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerait /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.ʁɛ/	encouragerions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	encourageriez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒə.ʁje/	encourageraient /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.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	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourages /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	encouragions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒjɔ̃/	encouragiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒje/	encouragent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/
	imperfect2	encourageasse /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/	encourageasses /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/	encourageât /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa/	encourageassions /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	encourageassiez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒa.sje/	encourageassent /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	encourage /ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ/	—	encourageons /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɔ̃/	encouragez /ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.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).

Related terms

• encouragement

Further reading

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