libérer

See also: liberer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līberāre, present active infinitive of līberō (“to set free”). Doublet of livrer, which was inherited. Unrelated to French délibérer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.be.ʁe/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

libérer

1. to liberate, to set free, to release from captivity.
2. to vacate, to move out of (e.g. a house)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written libérer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written libèrer-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of libérer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	libérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	libérant /li.be.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		libéré /li.be.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	libère /li.bɛʁ/	libères /li.bɛʁ/	libère /li.bɛʁ/	libérons /li.be.ʁɔ̃/	libérez /li.be.ʁe/	libèrent /li.bɛʁ/
	imperfect	libérais /li.be.ʁɛ/	libérais /li.be.ʁɛ/	libérait /li.be.ʁɛ/	libérions /li.be.ʁjɔ̃/	libériez /li.be.ʁje/	libéraient /li.be.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	libérai /li.be.ʁe/	libéras /li.be.ʁa/	libéra /li.be.ʁa/	libérâmes /li.be.ʁam/	libérâtes /li.be.ʁat/	libérèrent /li.be.ʁɛʁ/
	future	libèrerai or libérerai /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁe/	libèreras or libéreras /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁa/	libèrera or libérera /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁa/	libèrerons or libérerons /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	libèrerez or libérerez /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁe/	libèreront or libéreront /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	libèrerais or libérerais /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁɛ/	libèrerais or libérerais /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁɛ/	libèrerait or libérerait /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁɛ/	libèrerions or libérerions /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	libèreriez or libéreriez /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /li.be.ʁə.ʁje/	libèreraient or libéreraient /li.bɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /li.be.ʁə.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	libère /li.bɛʁ/	libères /li.bɛʁ/	libère /li.bɛʁ/	libérions /li.be.ʁjɔ̃/	libériez /li.be.ʁje/	libèrent /li.bɛʁ/
	imperfect2	libérasse /li.be.ʁas/	libérasses /li.be.ʁas/	libérât /li.be.ʁa/	libérassions /li.be.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	libérassiez /li.be.ʁa.sje/	libérassent /li.be.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	libère /li.bɛʁ/	—	libérons /li.be.ʁɔ̃/	libérez /li.be.ʁe/	—
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

• libération
• liberté
• libre
• librement

See also

• dégager

Further reading

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